Fate
by ShadowForceSilver
Summary: Fate is cruel. After Sonya Blade is captured by Tarkatans during Liu Kang's celebration, she finds herself on the way to Shao Kahn's castle in Outworld with Kano as another prisoner. Can the two escape Outworld...without killing eachother in the process?
1. Chapter 1 : Party Crashers

**Dear my Mortal Kombat readers,**

**Here is the proper story of SonyaXKano as promised. I have to admit, I'm addicted as I am to my ClaireXWesker. What can I say, I love HerioneXVillan couples.**

**So this is set in MK (2011) with a little bit of MK II I think (with Kano also getting captured) after Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung. At his celebration (in Jax's chapter) they are invaded by Outworld Tarkatans who capture Sonya and take her to the emperor's palace/castle/whatever. Now, the two never reach the castle to be exact, but that's for you to find out ^^**

**Hope you like**

***Shadow**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 1: Party Crashers**

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><p>"For the last time Johnny, I said no!"<p>

Sonya Blade pushed away the protesting actor with a smirk on her face as she moved back from the circle of festivity. Johnny Cage shrugged his shoulders as a sign of his disappointment and turned around as he searched for another dance partner; it would be unlikely that Sonya would give in. Sonya rolled her eyes and turned away as she walked out of the warm glow of the lanterns. She should be there with her friends, just like she should be congratulating Liu Kang on his success.

It had been a wonderful ceremony, and even though Liu Kang had managed to keep his emotions under control, she was sure that his heart was jumping when Raiden placed the gold medallion around his neck as a reward for emerging victorious from the tournament. As night fell and as the moon rose to replace the sun, the monks and kombatants had taken to celebration, with feasts and dancing. She sighed again, running a hand through small strands of blonde hair that had fallen out from her ponytail. She had a real bad feeling; something terrible was going to happen, and it would happen soon.

She looked upwards to her left; the Thunder God and Protector of Earthrealm Raiden and her superior Jax were conversing up on the balcony of one of the towers._ I wonder what those two are up to_, she wondered as she squinted at them.

Suddenly, the two whirled around, causing Sonya to give a small gasp of both shock and concern. Who else was up there; what foe was here now? That was the least of her concern though as she turned when she felt intense heat on her face. That bad feeling was back again.

"What the hell?" Sonya whispered in a shocked tone, her eyes widening as she took in the sight before her.

It was a simple ball of flame at first, hovering in mid air a few metres away from her. It glowed in the night menacingly, and Sonya took a step back. The fireball than started to expand and transform into a large spider web shape; becoming whirling flames of oranges, reds and blacks. It was almost as high as the surrounding towers, and Sonya thought she could see shadows amongst the flames.

"JOHNNY! LIU KANG!" She screamed as she turned to run back to the partying monks, becoming aware of a constant thud of several footsteps behind her.

Her calls were answered, and numerous Earthrealm warriors rushed away from their festive scene as they prepared for battle. Johnny had abandoned his dance position and partner, as well as Liu Kang and Kung Lao pushing away from the inner circle. With her newly found allies and friends, Sonya skidded to a stop and turned once again to face this new threat.

The portal had opened now; releasing an army of thousands of ... monsters. They could be considered humanoid or something similar. But the differences were too great to be ignored; their skin was scaly with spikes coming out of their forearms, their heads bald and their eyes were amber with vertical slits for pupils. But the most shocking thing was their mouths; huge open gaps lined with very long and very sharp stained teeth. Obviously the Outworld warriors had no dental plan.

Sonya watched Jax as he vaulted over the balcony railing and jumped down, landing heavily on the ground. His landing was quickly followed by a sucker punch to one of the Tarkatan warriors, knocking it to the ground. He quickly became swallowed up in the crowd of soldiers. Five seconds later, the two crowds of soldiers collided in a mass of fighting bodies. Sonya swooped down low and punched one of her adversaries in the chin, effectively knocking him out of her way. She had to get to Jax and help him. But a red flash in the corner of her eye stopped her short.

**.ShadowForceSilver.**

Kano stood to her right, calmly standing even though he was in the middle of a fierce battle. He slowly drew one of his butterfly knives out of its sheath before glancing back at Sonya with a smirk. As usual, the boiling hate controlled her and she charged towards him, her eyes narrowed in pure fury. She would kill him this time; it had gone on for far too long.

Kano was prepared for her attack and when Sonya lifted her leg to kick him in the torso, his hands blocked the blow and jerked her foot, bringing her off balance and toppling her to the floor. Sonya let out a surprised grunt as she hit the ground but recovered quickly, pulling her foot out of Kano's grasp and jumping back up to face her nemesis.

"You'll have to do better than that baby." He taunted Sonya in his thick accent, as he pointed his weapon at her.

Sonya bit her lip as she forced herself to calm down and take this logically. However Kano didn't give her enough time to plan and launched an attack of his own; brandishing his butterfly knife as he swiftly moved forward. Sonya came forward to meet him, but dropped to the ground at the last minute; using her legs to sweep Kano's feet from underneath him. Off-balanced himself, Kano flew down to the ground with a thud before stepping back up to face Sonya's punches. Sonya drove him backwards with her blows to his face and torso, despite his blocks and retaliating strikes. She was prepared to give one final blow to his head before something dragged her backwards.

"No!" She cried as soon as she had registered that the two had been surrounded by Tarkatan soldiers. She was so focused on Kano that she lost track of the third party; the Outworld invaders. She dug her heels into the earth to hinder the Tarkatan that was dragging her backwards.

Kano was also seized but unlike Sonya didn't put up a fight as they dragged him further into the mass of fighters. Sonya roughly pulled one of her arms out of the Tarkatan's grip before more went in for the attack, like wolves attacking a deer. Her arm was roughly pulled back and a black hood was thrown over her head. After a few more struggles, she felt a blow to the side of her head that knocked her to the dusty floor and effectively turned off the lights.

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><p><strong>Yay after chapter talk! So did you like it? It's not as long as I would of liked, but you make do with what you've got. I was going to have Sonya have a weapon too, but then I remembered she really only uses her legs and fists. So Kano only draws his butterfly knife really. But he'll be using it. Don't worry about that.<strong>

**'Til next time :D**


	2. Chapter 2 : A Little Situation

**Hello dear Readers,**

**Now I'm sorry for not updating this sooner (pfft like anyone actually reads it lol) but I really wanted to finish a chapter of my other stories before I updated. Of course i couldn't resist and updated with Fate early :)**

**So read on and we discover a little motive here.**

**Happy reading  
>*Shadow<br>**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 2**

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><p><em>Oh my god...<em>

Sonya slowly regained consciousness as she pushed past the grogginess and little bit of nausea in her mind.

_What's going on?_

As soon as she inched her eyes open to take in the blinding sunlight, a rhythmic pain in her temples forced them to rapidly shut and made her grind her teeth. She found it extremely difficult to concentrate on anything but the pain of this super migraine. She wondered what is was caused by, but then previous events enlightened her. There would certainly be a lump on the side of her head thanks to that goddamn soldier. Through the dizzying pounding sensations in her skull, Sonya could detect that she was ... floating.

She opened her eyes an inch to peer down at the ground and noticed that it moved with an up and down motion as she moved backwards. The movement brought the nausea back, and she swallowed that sickly feeling before it came too far up her throat. A stink of dirt and blood flooded her nostrils, and she could feel the rough cloth on her stomach. The realization was slightly humiliating; she had been slung over the shoulder of a Tarkatan warrior and was being carried like a sack of potatoes.

Sonya let out a barely audible groan and slowly shifted her head, causing the soldier to snicker something to his ally beside him. The huge open mouth split into a grin as his friend laughed before continuing on. Deciding that this had gone on for long enough, Sonya suddenly heaved her weight forward and landed unceremoniously on her back after going head over heels. She let out a loud pained gasp as she landed on the dirt track, her chest constricting as she tried to breathe. The Tarkatan group came to a halt, with those closest to her jumping to the side to avoid her sprawling limbs as she fell to the ground.

One who looked like the captain of the group angrily shoved the soldier who had been carrying her and barked at him in a fuming tone. Without warning, he turned towards Sonya and grabbed one shoulder strap of her leather jacket and dragged her off the road.

Sonya tried to fend him off as she felt the rocks painfully cut into her back, but she found that her wrists and feet had been tied together with thick bindings of rope. As soon as they were off the dirt path, the captain roughly swung her against a large boulder and lifted his foot to press his heavy boot against her shoulder.

"Stay here." He demanded. His orange eyes flashed angrily and he bared his long fangs at her before he turned away and starting shouting orders at his group to set up a camp.

Sonya tried to straighten herself up, stand up on her own feet, do anything even, but her limbs seemed unwilling to comply with their master. She tried to move again but found the result didn't change in the slightest. She let out a wounded sigh; feeling so helpless severely damaged her morale. How much worse could this get?

Almost as soon as she had found that thought in her mind, a crunching of footsteps gave her an answer. The Tarkatan swiftly shoved his prisoner to the ground before scoffing and stalking away after he had tied the man's ankles together so that it mirrored Sonya's shackles. The man let out a scoff of his own before he turned to smirk at the dazed blonde woman beside him. She was too tired to register the silver plate that covered half of his face and the glowing red eye that glinted at her. But as soon as she heard his somewhat cocky and rough Australian tone, she knew exactly who it was.

"Why hello again baby."

_Oh god, there's that vomit again..._

***ShadowForceSilver***

There were numerous voices above him in the darkness, speaking in low, hushed tones as they waited for him to rise. He only recognized a few of them before he felt the blackness at the sides of his eyes seeping away from his vision. He slowly opened his eyes before weakly opening his mouth to speak hoarsely.

"Raiden ... what happened?"

The Thunder God looked down at him with a concerned expression on his face, his glowing eyes looking troubled. He let out a sigh before replying to Jax.

"Shang Tsung came last night as you were aware with a proposal; one final tournament to determine Earthrealm's final fate."

Johnny looked confused and turned to face Raiden, "But Liu here defeated Shang Tsung in the final battle. I thought we didn't have to fight anymore. Well, you know for a little bit longer."

Raiden turned to the rest of the small group of warriors; Liu Kang and Kung Lao looking particularly concerned at this statement.

"Yes that is true. But with the show they gave us last night, I'm not sure of what our answer should be."

He offered a hand to Jax and lifted the man to his feet. At first wobbly, Jax turned to view his surroundings. They were surrounded by dozens of Tarkatan corpses; big orange eyes staring blankly with maniacal expression on their faces. A few red coloured robed bodies signalled that the Outworld's forces weren't the only ones with casualties.

He looked at those he stood around him. Johnny Cage had found his jacket and had donned it, probably understanding that it was not the right time to show off his tattoo to whoever would look. Liu Kang had his head in one hand, with Kung Lao speaking to him in a low voice. Raiden looked equally distressed. And then it hit him; there was someone who he had expected to see missing.

"Where's Sonya?"

At this, everyone looked uncomfortable. Only Johnny Cage answered him, blurting it out without much thought.

"They carried her off. Her and some freaky looking dude before they jumped into the huge red looking thingy."

Jax took a step forward, "Well let's go."

But as he tried to walk he stumbled and almost lost his balance. Raiden put an arm out in front of him to bring him to a halt.

"I'm sorry, but we can't. I don't think they can easily be found; the portal they used is damaged and scrambled. It would be impossible to pinpoint their location. Another reason is that as soon as we set foot in Outworld, Shao Kahn will mistake it for us accepting his terms, putting Earthrealm at risk."

Jax looked at the god with anger as he asked in a restrained voice, "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Raiden looked distant again before he answered, "I don't think there's anything we can do right now."

***ShadowForceSilver***

"Stay the hell away from me."

Sonya hissed as Kano had attempted to move closer to her again, smirking at how much it irritated her for him to be so close in her personal bubble. Sonya had to admit that she was slightly scared; she was surrounded by enemies and having one particular foe so close was quite unnerving. Kano smirked and locked his eyes onto hers before she nervously looked away. He let out a chuckle, but was told to keep quiet by the Tarkatan captain once again.

Night had fallen since the two had been rudely thrown against the rock they were sitting against. Sonya looked up to the sky for a distraction or idea and found the Outworld's night to be chilling; there was no moon or stars, just a large stretch of black. Back on the ground, it looked equally plain. It looked like they had been travelling on the dusty road through a large open desert that had nothing but stretches of brown sand with the old skeleton here and there.

One Tarkatan had thrown the two prisoners a hunk of bread each which they managed to grasp in their hands and slowly lift it to their mouths to eat the stale food. Then he turned away to join his comrades at the small campfire they were sitting around, eating the jerky looking meat and bread from the pouches at their waist. When Sonya was about to demand what happened to water, Kano answered for his captors.

"You'll get your swig in the morning."

Sonya slowly turned to face the smirk again and glared at him with a distasteful look that one normally reserved for rats, snakes or spiders. It only made Kano laugh.

"That scowl certainly gives your pretty face a bad look."

"Back the hell off Kano or I'll wring your neck." Sonya hissed back, her fury barely contained.

Kano watched her for a few moments, his eyes curiously taking in the defensive woman beside him who seemed similar to a wild creature that was trapped in a corner and would strike when it felt threatened the most. He decided to take advantage of this discomfort in hopes of getting her to cooperate.

He cast a glance at the Tarkatans before shifting closer to Sonya, who seemed hell-bent on getting further away. Unfortunately for her, there was nowhere else to go, leaving her trapped between a rock and a person. Kano cast another glance at the sleeping soldiers before turning to the blonde again, leaning in closer.

Sonya shivered when she felt his breath on her neck as he whispered in her ear.

"Now listen here baby, we both have a little situation on our hands."

He waited until he was sure she was still and listening before he continued.

"We are directly on our way to none other than our Lordship's Colosseum. From then on it's certain death; a slow, brutal, painful certain death. "

Sonya interrupted then, hissing in a low tone, "How do I know you're not bullshitting me?"

A smirk came to Kano's features before he leaned in closer still, "You don't do you? So, let us continue this lovely little chat. Luckily for us, we have a little advantage on our side. The bloody idiots over there..." he gestured towards the Tarkatans with a flick of his head "...screwed up with the portals, so we landed about a good week away. However, somebody decided it was a good time to have a little nap."

Sonya bristled but Kano continued his talk, "So I couldn't exactly leave until Sleeping Beauty woke up. Now, we are set to reach the castle in around ... a little under two days. Therefore baby, our rather interesting time together is limited."

Sonya scoffed, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Kano let out a hiss of his own before thrusting his face into her own. Sonya let out a frightened gasp as she felt the cool metal of the plate on his face rub against her cheek and found the red orb that served as one of his eye staring directly into one of her own. His voice was low and threatening.

"I thought I made it clear that you would have to co-operate baby. If we don't move our arses, you can kiss seeing your 'friends' again good-bye."

The comment stabbed at Sonya in the heart. Never see her friends again? She had already lost so much; she couldn't lose them as well. Her voice was a quiet and wounded whisper.

"Get away from me now you goddamn asshole ..."

The hollow insult didn't even make him flinch. Kano's bone white teeth were exposed by his cunning smile, "What's wrong? Am I getting ..." he broke off as he pushed himself closer to her, increasing her discomfort as he whispered in her ear again.

"... too close for comfort?"

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><p><strong>So... I love this couple! I just have a thing for HeroineXVillan couples and SXK are no exception lol. So I love the ending scene and Sonya's "Oh god there's that vomit" What did you like the best?<strong>

**Now pretty pretty please give me a review. Let me know that I'm not the SonyaKano fanatic on the planet :) And just as a heads up for people who go rah rah rah "they aren't romantic" rah rah rah, I'm not big on the fluffy in my serious stories.**


	3. Chapter 3 : Out of the Frying Pan

**Why hello bab- *cough Excuse me... let me take that again...**

**Why hello dear readers! :)**

**Long time eh? Well I have been cheating on fanfiction with assignments. I know... I'm bad lol. But I've also been focusing on Fate a lot lately (I was in a SonyaXkano mood).**

**Well... enjoy this. :)**

**Reviews and Favs and Subscribes are much appreicated.**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 3:**

Kano's left eye slowly opened before his features twisted into a smirk once again as he felt a warm weight drop softly down onto his right shoulder. Before the ... rather pleasant interruption as he liked to put it, he had been watching the Outworld's sun begin to lazily climb up from the horizon. Unable to sleep himself, he had waited until the Tarkatans had gradually drifted off into a slumber by the crackling flames of the campfire before silently shifting into a sitting position and gazed at the sky which had freaked him out every night since he was dragged here; a wide space of absolutely nothing.

He stole a glance at Sonya beside him, who he thought had been awake also until he saw her eyes were closed, rapidly flicking left or right under her eyelids as she endured her tortured sleep. Kano tore his eyes from his rival when he felt a change and turned his whole face to look upward again, even though his red eye was incapable of sight. The dark abyss of the sky was getting lighter, and that signalled the coming of dawn. And almost on cue, a golden ball of fire started to crawl from the east, peeking over the horizon as its golden rays spilled out across the desert.

The sudden light glowed in front of Sonya's eyelashes, tempting her to open her eyes to the coming light of dawn. She let out a sigh and went to stretch her neck out when the top of her head hit something warm and fleshy. Her mind, fuzzy and tired, didn't register that at first but then her sharp logic broke through and insisted that something strange was afoot. And in a way it was.

She forced herself to look up towards her forehead and felt her mouth go dry when she saw that the warm and fleshy object was a neck. A masculine neck. A masculine human neck. And there was only one of those around.

"Comfy there, baby?"

_OH MY LORD!_

The silent scream of shock in Sonya's mind jolted her awake as she attempted to leap backwards, which of course due to her hands and feet being tied, it had turned into a feeble tumble onto her side. _How the hell did that happen_, she thought in alarm. Being within a hundred miles of her arch-nemesis and not doing anything about it was bad, falling asleep on his shoulder was out of the question in her point of view.

Kano on the other hand didn't see what the huge fuss was about. Sure they were sworn enemies and all, but he liked to think he had pretty comfortable shoulders. But any further thought of the two was interrupted by the stirring of the Tarkatan guards, who gave wide yawns that would rival those of Earth realm lions.

The Tarkatan that threw their food to them the previous night had returned, arming himself with a long rapier looking weapon before stomping over towards them. He roughly grasped Sonya's arms and yanked them forward. Not expecting the sudden movement, Sonya felt herself fly forward and only had time to nervously eye the silver blade before it cut the knot binding her hands together and sudden gravity pushing her forward with the Tarkatan releasing his grip. Kano was obviously expecting the same treatment so no surprise came to his face when the blade cut his own ropes.

The next thing their jailor did was similar to last night; he reached into his pouch and fished out two small stale rolls of bread and then a small leather water skin before dropping them onto the ground in front of them and stomping away to rejoin his allies who were stamping out the embers of the campfire. Sonya reached out for the roll that was closest to her and winced as she took a bite. The roll was difficult to tear apart due to the texture and hard on her teeth, but she was thankful that there were no unpleasant surprises hidden in the food.

The two prisoners ate in silence but when Kano reached for the water skin and offered it to Sonya, she declined in the most civil way she could that would maintain her pride.

"I don't need it."

Kano rose an eyelid at this and was about to mention that she made a point about water last night, but thought better about it. He raised the water skin to his mouth and squirted a little bit of the liquid onto his dry tongue, keeping his eye on Sonya while he did so. He noticed how she was eyeing him and the water skin every few seconds before looking away in her attempt to resist her temptation.

After he had finished his fill, he thrust the water skin at Sonya again who looked at him in alarm, then at the water skin and back up at him again. Her mouth set into a hard line and she turned away again, refusing to accept his help. Letting out a slightly annoyed sigh, he thought that although her courageous pride was admirable, it was terribly inconvenient. Deciding on one final approach, he placed the water skin on the ground behind him and turned away. He didn't miss Sonya curiously turning around, again surprised as her eyes wandered down to the abandoned water skin. Her mouth dried instantly, and she juggled between keeping her pride or quenching her thirst. Grudgingly accepting the undeniable facts, she chose.

And within a few seconds, Kano heard the sound of the leather scraping against the hard ground as it was lifted once again.

***ShadowForceSilver***

The Tarkatans seemed more excited by the fact that they were closer to home and they joked and laughed with one another as they gathered their supplies together. After the Tarkatans had put out the fire and packed their provisions, they were ready to move out. The sun was nearing the middle of the horizon, so Sonya suspected that they would be getting ready to make one of their final journeys. It was slightly depressing to say that she was wishing this walk would never end. Then again, as soon as she arrived at the Emperor's palace, death was certain.

The "jailer Tarkatan" approached the prisoners soon after the fire had been doused, the ghost of a smile on his open jaws. He had two coils of rope in his hands and it didn't take a lot of brains to figure out what they were for.

Hardly skipping a beat, Kano lifted both of his wrists into the air. His movements were robotic and jerky, like it was something he had done so many times that he now did it automatically. However, he was quite surprised when the Tarkatan approached Sonya first.

She glared up into the amber eyes with a look full of revolt and anger; her eyes narrowing and her mouth setting into a hard line. The Tarkatan let out a hearty gruff which Sonya guessed was a chuckle before he leant down with lighting speed. The next thing Sonya knew was a burning pain in her scalp as the Tarkatan lifted her to her feet by the top of her head. She let out a strangled cry of pain as she used her hands to try and loosen the Tarkatan's grip.

Sonya's shouts attracted the attention of the rest of the group, who began to loudly shout words of encouragement. Just when she thought she would pass out, a blur in front of her eyes and a yell of shock from the Tarkatan resulted in her falling to the ground face first.

Raising her head, she was surprised to see Kano grappling viciously with the Tarkatan standing in front of her. With a swift and deadly jab, the Tarkatan struck Kano in the stomach and pushed the man to the floor. Sonya didn't notice Kano's hand swiftly reach forwards and pull back before he was shoved back to the floor. After a final kick to the gut, the jailor tied their hands with the rope before stalking away.

Sonya cast a nervous look at the band of Outworld warriors, before her eyes slowly moved to the man to her left. Kano had landed on his back with a loud grunt of pain before he became completely motionless. Sneaking another look at the Tarkatans, she crawled over to Kano in a rather awkward manner. It was lucky that she did so, because Kano had begun to shake as well as violently gag.

Acting quickly and thinking back to basic First Aid, Sonya rolled him onto his side swiftly in case he coughed anything up and choked. Wondering why she cared, she pushed the thought away quickly to warn him in a low voice.

"Don't do that again."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Beside from the morning's incident, the day was pretty uneventful in Sonya's eyes. Of course, they trekked a rather great distance; instead of a lifeless desert of sand dunes, they had come to rest in a surprisingly beautiful forest filled with life. The Tarkatans had remained silent as they trekked along, except for the odd taunt that tonight would be their last night of freedom. Kano was also silent, but Sonya noticed a sly glint in his eyes every time he turned to look at one of the Tarkatans surrounding them.

The two prisoners sat with their backs to a mossy rock while the Tarkatan band sat around the fire, celebrating a successful mission and eagerly anticipating the return home. The loud laughing went on for hours until silence suddenly took over; giving way to the various animal noises in the forest. With a quick glare, Sonya confirmed that they had fallen sound asleep.

Feeling suddenly sorry for herself, she turned on her side away from Kano; curling up into a ball. After tonight, her chances of escaping here and seeing her friends again had gone from slim to impossible. And it saddened her greatly. Forcing those thoughts from her mind, she concentrated solely on the sounds of nature. The wind rustled the green leaves. The branches swayed on their trees. Various night birds gave squawks that sounded alien to her.

And then there was a rustling beside her. She froze on instinct, listening intensely for any other sound of movement. The next sound was that of a rope getting cut away and then another rustling as two objects were dropped on the grass. Trying to keep her breathing as even as possible, she shifted her head slightly to try and look behind her. Although she couldn't see much, she knew there was one thing she couldn't see. Kano had disappeared.

Swinging her head back fearfully, she took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. _How did that happen_? The thought raced into her mind as she lifted her head again, her frantic eyes scanning over the Tarkatan warriors. The orange fire cast a glow on all of them, sleeping obliviously. And then her eyes caught something else; Kano was standing over one of the Tarkatans closest to fire.

He stood there, watching for a few seconds before silently kneeling down to the Tarkatan's level. The burning glow illuminated Kano's face; chillingly reminding her of a demon. There was a silver flash due to the firelight, and then the Tarkatan shuffled with a choking noise before becoming still again. Wiping something on the grass beside him, Kano moved to the next Tarkatan and the same thing happened. Same with the next one. And the next one.

After the last Tarkatan had shuffled then stilled, Kano got up on his feet and stared at the blonde woman seemingly asleep by the moss-covered rock. He let out a chuckle, and it was then that Sonya noticed that the Tarkatans were lying too still to be asleep. Not even a single one uttered so much as a snore. Sonya caught her breath as Kano crept closer, the thing in his hand becoming clear. It was a long and sharp dagger, curiously stained with a dark liquid. He had cut the Tarkatan's throats with their own dagger.

No longer being able to remain still, Sonya flew upwards into a standing position, despite her hands being tied. His eyes locked onto hers, like a snake did to its prey as he stopped in his tracks. Sonya's heart seemed to stop, and the fear forced itself up her throat like vomit. It forced her to rethink her tactics; fight or flee? She chose flee.

With a shrill shriek of alarm, she turned tail and fled into the forest, running as fast as she could. Her gait was awkward as her arms weren't allowed to swing freely, but adrenaline seemed to kick in at that moment and forced her to keep running. However, almost immediately after, a conveniently placed rock hidden in a large tuft of grass brought her down to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

She cringed as the stab of pain hit her in the stomach, and mumbled at the throbbing ache in her chest as she slowly got to her feet. But the sudden footsteps and one of Kano's sadistic taunts that had taken over the silence automatically made her forget the hurt she felt on her torso.

It made her feel defenceless, and she was close to bolting away again. But before she could take a step, logic hit her. Deciding that running senselessly would get her nowhere, Sonya decided to set the battle on her terms; she would choose when and where the confrontation occurred. But with the approaching footsteps becoming louder, it was clear that if she wanted to strike first, she would need to get a move on and find a place to wait for the moment to attack.

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><p><strong>So Kano has been a bad boy and slaughtered all of the Tarkatan guards. He is a very bad person! And Sonya had a "Oh shi-" moment and turned tail. Not blamming her, I probably would have done the same thing.<strong>

**Well I have a whopping head ache so I'm going to end this little write thingy.**

**Ta-ta  
>*Shadow<strong>


	4. Chapter 4 : And into the Fire

**Why hello there readers,**

**I'm sorry for being in a state of ... hibernation for a while lol but I have been focusing on Fate a lot and din't want to upload the story until I had it figured out (I finished this chapter ages ago, aren't I cruel?) But after nearly spilling water on my laptop and losing all my work, I decided to post it.**

**Read on, it's my fav so far ^^**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 4:  
><strong>

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><p>His plan was going so smooth it was almost like taking candy from a baby ... or in this case; a cooking blade from a cocky Tarkatan. Concealing his newfound weapon in a secret pouch by his chest and under his shirt (despite the fact that the Tarkatans never checked their prisoners) he had bided his time until later that night when the small assembly had stopped to set up camp. From then on, it was now or never.<p>

Cutting his binds with the blade was easy; he hadn't trained himself with various knifes and various situations in case something like this confronted. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder at the sleeping woman beside him, he stealthily made his way to the hulking shapes sleeping by the fire. The closest Tarkatan to him had its mouth wide open as it breathed with ragged snores; completely oblivious. Kano kneeled beside his captor with no mercy in his eyes.

In no time at all, he rose again. The Tarkatans were all particularly still; their breathing had ceased and their eyes stared lifelessly at the sky. And in that moment, Kano noticed that someone else had become still. He looked over towards Sonya, who had been breathing lightly in her sleep. Now she had frozen, breathless. Catching onto the act, he sniggered and began to stalk back to where he had left his prize.

What he wasn't expecting was the blonde to leap up out of her sleep before he had even taken five steps. At first, she looked considerably confused. No wonder she was questioning the situation; her sharp logic insisted on it. But once her eyes caught sight of the bloodied blade and the chillingly motionless Tarkatans, a look of utter terror crossed her features.

Kano's lips tugged into a sly smirk as Sonya Blade let out a piercing scream of panic before she turned away and bolted into the forest as fast as she could. If that was the game that she wanted to play, he would willingly go along with it. Despite her footsteps fading away, Kano appeared to be in no hurry and kneeled on the ground again, wiping his beloved weapon free of the dark Tarkatan blood. Once he got rid of as much of the stained smears as he could, he rose again and put it away. He was confident that it wouldn't be needed to overcome a shaken and fearful opponent.

"Ready or not...here I come!" He hollered at the silent trees and bushes.

His voice had an arrogant and strangely cheerful tone and he was certain that his taunts would be a great use of psychological warfare. Although he knew that a simple sneer was unlikely to bring Sonya to her knees, it was easy to bring down anyone's morale when they were skittish.

His eyes raked over the large wooden fingers of the tree trunks, their emerald leaves moving gently with the wind. He could also hear the frantic footsteps of his quarry, and took a controlled step forward; he was eager to begin the hunt. After a loud cry of pain coming from the direction where Sonya had disappeared, he decided to begin his pursuit. It was quite comical really, that after all those times of her chasing him all over the place in a never-ending fury; the roles were reversed, and he was chasing her while she fled. In all honesty, he actually enjoyed the game.

As soon as Kano entered the forest, Sonya's impulsive path was so obvious it was almost an insult. Flattened grass and cracked twigs littered the ground, and Kano jogged on the trail she had left. When he came to a large trampled patch in the long grass, he came to a halt, his lips pursing thoughtfully. A large rock peeping out from the grass just before the flattened grass was obviously the cause of her fall. He made a small noise of understanding; due to the fall and the absence of any other tracks, it was unlikely that she had gone far.

He let out a sigh. "Marco..." he called out. The single word echoed through the forest, ringing eerily in the silence.

"...polo." he answered himself. At the sudden sound of a twig snapping he stopped and listened for any further noise before he called out again in a soft whisper, "Marco..."

"POLO!"

Kano's head snapped upwards at the answer; he hadn't thought to look up into the branches of the tree directly above him. Now that he thought about it, the cover the tree provided would have been an ideal place to hide. But he could no longer think of his mistakes as a small figure came freefalling from the branch she was resting on. With her arms spread like a hawk and a determined expression on her face; Sonya ended her flight downwards and collided into him; bringing the two of them to the ground.

***ShadowForceSilver***

_I didn't expect that to work..._

The thought raced through Sonya's mind as she threw herself sideways out of the tree. Kano looked upwards as soon as she shouted back, his red laser eye glinting up at her from the darkness. The last thing she registered was the look of complete shock on his face before she slammed into him. Kano's legs gave way as soon as the unexpected weight of the smaller woman forced him to the ground with a loud "oomph!"

The moment that Sonya hit the grassy floor, she rolled away from her rival and pushed herself to rise with her bound hands. Thankfully they had been tied in front of her; if they had been tied behind her back it would have been a lot more difficult to get this far.

Without a second thought, she moved to run past Kano and find another place to hide and execute an ambush again. Planning to jump over his flailing limbs and disappear into the small leafy bush area behind them, she ran forwards without much thought. It turned out to be her downfall.

Kano may have hit the ground harder than her, but he had the added benefit of his hands being untied and not feeling overly threatened or rushed. He felt rather than heard or saw Sonya rush past him, and he impulsively flung himself forwards, his hands reaching out as he landed in her path. A loud grunt of surprise and the shaking thud on the ground indicated that his plan had resulted in success.

He smirked and looked upwards to see Sonya cough and try to pull herself off the floor again, a wheezing sound coming from her throat as she tried to drag the air back into her lungs.

She glared back at the grinning man on the ground; _the bastard tripped me!_ Realizing that she had lost enough valuable time to not be able to disappear again, she turned to face Kano as he slowly rose to a standing position. He let out a dark chuckle and retrieved his dagger from his waist and held it out; the sharp point directed at the blonde before him. Sonya immediately assumed an offensive position; despite her hands being tied and her heart hammering in her chest.

He walked in an intimidating manner, approaching her in a wide arc on her right. Without much thought, Sonya instinctively moved in the opposite direction so she could keep the same amount of distance between them. After a few seconds, Kano halted and cocked his head to the side with a smirk on his face; looking utterly pleased with himself. Confused, Sonya's eyes darted from side to side around her until she noticed where she was standing.

She swore at herself angrily as she realized what Kano's plan had been; he had placed himself in front of the bushes she had planned to escape through. Right now, she was in a horrible position with the large tree she had climbed not too far behind her.

"Damn, damn, damn." She hissed under her breath.

Her eyes narrowed in fury as Kano gave another short bark of laughter.

"You going somewhere princess?"

He took a step forward, intentionally making her feel crowded and stealing her space. Sonya didn't like it one bit, but held her ground.

"Well, I actually wa-"

Sonya cut off her own response in an attempt to outmanoeuvre Kano and fly into the bushes. However, Kano saw right through the distraction, and the moment she took a step, he charged forwards and grabbed Sonya by the shoulders before slamming her against the trunk of the tree directly behind her. He was hoping she would attempt something like that, so pushing her to stand in front of the tree turned out to be good planning on his part and crappy organising on hers.

The moment she felt her back roughly collide with the bark of the tree trunk, Sonya lifted her arms upward with incredible speed before attempting to beat Kano away with a savage fury. She let out an angry warrior cry that reminded Kano of a furious animal, and he let out a loud holler of amusement at her resistance. Her wilful spirit was admirable. As soon as Sonya started raining blows on him, Kano stepped close to her and retaliated.

Again, he had the benefit of having his hands free so he subdued her with relative ease; by grapping both of her wrists with one of his own hands and pinning them against the tree trunk over her head. His free hand was lightning fast as it retrieved his blade before holding it threateningly at her throat. Sonya struggled momentarily, but every attempt to break the hold Kano had was foiled.

Eventually, her struggles decreased in strength until they ceased completely, with Sonya glaring defiantly at her rival. There was not a doubt in her mind that Kano would slit her throat right there, miles away from another living being. Kano was instead feeling rather pleased at her submission, and he felt a sinister sneer come to his lips.

"Did you really think you could get away that easy? Especially without me? Come on, baby, you're smarter than that."

Sonya felt her blood boil at his comment, and the next two words she spoke came out in a fuming growl.

"Piss off."

Kano snickered menacingly at her; this was going to be much more fun than he ever anticipated. Never taking his eye off her narrowed chocolate brown ones, he unhurriedly withdrew his blade from her neck before safely sheathing it at his waist. Sniggering darkly, he brought his free hand back up and placed it on his hip. If it weren't for the circumstances, their rivalry and their current location; anyone passing by from afar would mistake them for a couple flirting. Of course, all of the above factors were very real.

Kano gestured to the two of them with a flick of his wrist, the dark smile never leaving his face.

"Oh, this brings back memories, eh?"

Sonya froze; a look of absolute terror flashing over her face for a brief second before it was replaced with her steely expression once again. He was referring to when he had chained her up in the Black Dragon warehouse after catching her snooping around before taunting her endlessly; threatening the lives of Jax and Stryker before mocking her, telling her what would happen to herself. It wasn't something she liked to remember.

"Let me go now Kano or I'll rip you limb from limb. Right. Now." She tried to cover her growing uneasiness with death threats, but by being a master of deceit himself; Kano easily saw through the facade.

Kano moved forward slightly, bringing himself closer into her personal bubble. Sonya let out a barely audible and frightened gasp as Kano craned his neck forward; bringing his eyes; one laser red and the other sly and manipulative directly in front of her. He gave her a chilling smirk that would make any sadistic evil-doer hot with jealously.

"Oh no dear Sonya. Like I said; I won't be letting you go anywhere."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Sonya threw her head back and uttered a loud cry of pain as the tightening rope forced her arms to stretch behind her back, making her feel like that her shoulders were getting dislocated. She felt a hand on her right arm, making her flesh prickle. With the sickening feeling in her stomach, she found that Kano touching her was worse than the burning of the rope rubbing against the skin of her wrist.

"Oh I'm sorry; was I too hard?" Kano's rich voice came from behind her as she felt the hand drift down to her hands before it disappeared completely as he stood up.

Feeling disgusted at the double meaning of his words; Sonya retaliated with a hostile snarl, "Get away from me you twisted fu-"

But before she could finish, Kano's arm shot out at her throat with lightning speed; his Butterfly Knife trailing over her lips to effectively silence her.

"Now sweety, let's not get unnecessarily snappy. We don't want to go to bed angry." With her only response being a heated glare, he backed away from her to throw another branch on the successfully burning fire.

Dragging her out of the woods had turned out to be no easy feat; Sonya had insisted on being as much of a hindrance as she possibly could be. She halted them at any obstacle in their path; hooking her leg around a sapling and physically dragging them to a stop was one of her favourite methods. When he tried to push her forwards in front of him, she had pushed back and dug her heels in. When he pulled her around, she refused to budge. Through these methods she got free a few times, even though her freedom didn't last for long.

After the latest sapling incident, Kano uttered a barely audible sound of annoyance before informing Sonya that if she didn't stop stalling, he would simply throw her over his shoulder. He also added how much he would enjoy doing so. The serious yet somewhat flirty tone he spoke with spurred Sonya into a rather reluctant and short submission.

As soon as Kano had managed to wrestle his resisting prisoner out of the forest and back to the camp that the Tarkatans had temporarily set up; he had "tidied up". Leaving Sonya in front of the fire, he had dragged all the bodies of the Tarkatan guard into a pile in the shadows. Sonya felt a cold chill as he pulled one past her; its amber eyes stared lifelessly at the skies and its toothed mouth open in a manic grin that was present on all Tarkatans. Her eyes drifted down to the savage slit on the Tarkatan's throat and she felt her stomach flip with nausea.

He had also gathered all of their supplies such as their remaining food ("Hah! Those bloody bastards had jerky!") for their own use. Sonya noticed with distaste that he had kept the coils of rope rather than throwing it on the pile of bodies like he did with the "unnecessary objects"; a large iron cooking pot was quickly discarded and the few blades that Kano had deemed "flawed". With a sound of relief, he strapped his Butterfly knives back to his belt. The only thing that remained of the Tarkatan's presence at the campfire was a few patches of darkly coloured grass.

Sonya tugged at the binds on her wrists, letting out a determined and obviously frustrated groan. Kano's gaze flickered inquisitively up at her, his hands pausing as he opened one of the leather pouches to inspect its contents. She froze and returned the gaze; but unlike Kano's, hers was livid with clear rage. Kano gave another chuckle at this and slowly rose to his feet.

The flames cast an eerie light on Kano as he stalked menacingly around the fire, his scarlet laser eye glowing ominously in the darkness. Sonya shivered, the hair on the back of her neck prickling as she stared upwards at her long-hated enemy. The shadows that had been shed on his face made her think of a demon.

"Now ask yourself sweet Sonya; will that really work? The Tarkatan's binds were sloppy but did their job." He walked a few steps around so that he was behind her before he knelt down to check his work again. He wasn't surprised when he found that the ropes hadn't budged, not even a little bit.

"I may not have chains this time, but my methods serve me well. Wouldn't you agree?" His own hands drifted up her arms, causing Sonya's flesh to prickle wherever his fingers touched.

"Coward." Her hiss was low and her fury was barely suppressed.

It caused Kano to pause for a second, "Oh? What makes you say that baby?"

Sonya twisted her neck around a little bit to face him, her right eye glinting furiously at him.

"Tying me up. . What you're too afraid to mock me while I can use both of my hands? Or are you just not man enough for a fair fight?"

Kano quickly re-assumed control of the situation; letting go of her arms, one of his hands swiftly shot forward upwards and seized her blonde ponytail and yanked her head back sharply. Sonya let out a cry of pain as her head was wrenched backwards by her hair. Once the nausea of being thrown backwards had been forced down, she blinked to find herself staring up into Kano's face.

"Now why would I let you go? I quite like you all tied up like this." He gave her a sly grin before releasing his hold on her and stepping away, "In all honesty; I have a very active imagination."

His last words were a sly whisper that ticked her ear. Sonya ignored the comment and focused on getting answers.

"What's the point of keeping me captive?" Sonya yelled angrily at him as he retreated to sit on the opposite side of the campfire.

Kano paused before answering, and pondered on this question as he propped himself up against a large boulder behind him, stretching out one leg. He let out a loud sound of amusement, which resulted in Sonya bristling again.

"Good things to those who wait baby. Think of it this way; I'll be a much better jailor than your last one. At least you won't starve to death." And with that final statement, Kano went silent.

_Of course I won't starve. I'll have my heart ripped out before I even begin to feel hungry!_

Sonya raised her eyes to the figure just out of the fire's glow and kept her suspicious and somewhat frightened gaze there. It was creepy how Kano's crimson laser eye would stare despite his other eye being closed. The chilling feeling of her enemy being in such close proximity was unnerving and kept her awake no matter how hard she tried to sleep.

In the silent darkness of the Outworld night, Sonya pondered to herself; had the change of hierarchy really rescued her from certain death at Shao Kahn's hands? Or had she just replaced one murderer with another?

* * *

><p><strong>Soooooo ... did you like it? I have some game and series references in there, Sonya's "I'm gonna get my heart ripped out" is ode to Kano's fatality and of course Kano's comment of "Remember the good ole days when I still had my other eye and you in chains? Ah memories." is ode to MK Legacy and my own short story of the episode.<strong>

**Keep an eye out, I've already started the fifth chapter, and expect an appearance from a guest. Here's a clue, it's a he and he is on the bad side lol (It's not Shao Kahn, but you're close)**

***Shadow**


	5. Chapter 5 : For Better or Worse?

**Hai there peeps,**

**Again I'm terribly sorry that I've been lazy and haven't written a single word until like... right now. But I decided to pick up the pen... uh keyboard and start up again. :)**

* * *

><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 5:  
><strong>

* * *

><p><em>Ahh, the feeling of waking up without ropes on your wrists...<em>

Kano woke from his slumber with a lazy smile on his face as he blinked his eyes sleepily, his hands blissfully unbound. The golden sunlight reached out across the land, and shimmery rays of light peeked through the dense trees surrounding the clearing. He noticed with interest that small flames still flickered in the makeshift campfire. He let out a yawn as he withdrew his leg from stretching out so that both were bunched underneath him, allowing him to rise.

As he stood, he noticed the crouched figure on the other side of the fire flinch at his own movement, like an abused pet fearing its owner. Curiously, he regarded her while he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders. Sonya's eyes until recently had been somewhat lifeless; as if there was nobody inside her head. Now that Kano had woken, they had sparked back and had taken on a guarding glare that stared back fearlessly.

_Oh this will be fun_... Kano thought as he approached the now motionless woman. Despite the fact that Sonya had returned to blankly staring straight ahead, he knew that she was fully aware of his approach. It seemed like she hadn't moved an inch, or slept for that matter. He silently sighed; that was going to burden them. He wanted to get as far away from Shao Kahn's keep as possible.

"Come one baby ... wakey-wakey."

He had stooped down to sit on his heels, and searched for any kind of light in her empty eyes. With a sigh, he lifted his arm to shake her shoulder, forcing her back into a clinically alive state. But in the split second that Kano had kneeled down and brought his face in front of hers, Sonya reacted with one powerful jab of energy; by swinging forward rapidly, ramming her forehead into Kano's nose with a splitting crack.

The force of the stunning blow sent Kano backwards almost like a cannonball had struck him square in the face, making his nose bleed and his brain scream. After letting out a loud roar of pain and clutching his nose tenderly, his ears ceased ringing soon enough to hear a short and silent bark of triumph from Sonya. Looking up, he found that the fiery spark in her eyes had returned at the action of causing her enemy pain, despite the small trickle of blood that inched out of her own nose.

But when she saw Kano getting to his feet and stalking towards her, a flicker of fear raced over her eyes. She was powerless when Kano grabbed her by the throat and forced her up on to her knees, with the only form of resistance available being a hoarse cry.

"Well I should have seen that coming I guess."

He tightened his grip on her neck and brought his face closer to her own, his hot breath chilling her face. His lips had twitched into a sadistic smirk when he saw Sonya try to edge her head away.

"Yes you should have."

Sonya's reply was low and dangerous. In answer, Kano shook his head in amusement before he released his choking hold on her throat and let her tumble to the ground. The hard ground met painfully with her ribs as she hit the floor, but Sonya stubbornly bit her lip and refused to cry out. Breathing heavily, she struggled to pull herself into a half-lying and half-sitting position, glaring heavily at the man above her.

Kano broke the stare and turned away from the exhausted woman, he had better things to do then play with fire. In fact, speaking of fire, he did have a job to do. He looked down at the flames of the campfire, his brow creased in thought. Sonya's own brow furrowed in confusion; what on earth was he doing? But her confusion was answered when she saw him bend down and retrieve a thick branch that held the largest of the flames. Despite the twisting orange flame licking at his hands, he walked calmly towards the pile of bodies, lifting the burning branch.

"Don't-" Sonya began in a shocked tone, but Kano had already begun to trail the flames over the lifeless Tarkata, the twisting serpents of fire gliding over the bodies.

The soft cloth and fur that were their clothes and armour slowly caught alight, until the tiny flames grew higher in what seemed like no time at all. With a pleased huff, Kano tossed the branch onto the top of the fire, spreading the flames further through the heart of the pile. Satisfied with the fire, he turned back around and walked ominously forward, increasing Sonya's anxiety.

"Get the hell away from me!" Sonya fearfully objected as she tried to crawl away as fast as she could.

Kano cocked his head to the side and smirked as he stalked towards her.

"Is that supposed to be threat baby?"

He swooped down as soon as he was close enough to her, darting to the left to avoid one of her poorly aimed kicks. Coming around behind her, he wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled backwards. Despite the choking hold, Sonya resisted every step of the way towards the bonfire of burning bodies. Once they had reached the foot of the fire, Kano dropped her back on the earth and drew his Butterfly Knife with malice.

Sonya barely suppressed a cry of horror as her eyes caught the steely glint of the blade. Kano smirked again and Sonya saw him prepared to go for the kill. Her heart seemed to stop beating and her blood ran cold when she saw her life ending in a small amount of time. And that was when it hit her.

_I don't want to die._

The thought raged through her like the fire that was consuming the dead Tarkata. Kano saw the determined flare of courage in her eyes, and was prepared for her counter-attack. Seeing only one chance, Sonya lifted her hands off the ground again and in one smooth movement, she swiped them both at the left side of Kano's head. It should have knocked him back with another ringing headache, but Kano had instead flipped the blade of his knife around so the deadly point was right in front of him.

Sonya knew her plan had gone wrong the moment she felt what was at first a stinging sensation run along her right forearm turn into a burning pain. Letting out a surprised cry, Sonya fell onto her side stunned as to what had happened. Twisting her arm around to inspect the damage she was taken aback at the surprisingly clean yet long slash that the Butterfly Knife had left on her flesh.

"Bastard!" She cried hysterically as trickles of blood lazily wound themselves down her arm and dripped onto the soil.

Kano didn't appear to be very bothered by Sonya's outcry.

"Well, who over-reacted? I was only after a small blood donation." Kano lazily flicked the insult away with a gesture of his head.

He then set to cleaning the blood off of his dagger; by abruptly and randomly flicking it away from him, sending scarlet drops to the ground. Sonya was curious, but tried not to let it get the best of her.

"What are you doing? Wasting your little 'donation'?" She inspected the cut on her arm again before she started to wipe the blood on her leather pants.

Kano looked up with an annoyed expression and strode over to her side, seizing her arm and pulling it away from her side. Sonya let out a shout of refusal and tried to pull it back, only to have Kano tighten his grip. At another struggle, his free hand whipped forward and grasped her by the back of the neck, pushing her head down.

"Will you cut it out? You're the one that's squandering the decoy."

Sonya inched her head to her right to find Kano simply doing what he did with the knife; letting the blood drip down to soak little patches of earth. She tried to break free again, but Kano didn't allow her to budge. No matter what the circumstances were though, she wouldn't allow herself to give in.

"You want to know, eh?"

"I wasn't asking." Sonya's tone was grumpy and irritated. It made Kano smile and shake his head.

"You weren't asking very loudly baby. Heh-heh. Well I'll speak out loud shall I? You're a smart girl; you should be able to figure it all out."

There was no answer, but Kano did exactly what he said he would.

"Now, let's say that these idiots over here made camp last night with their prisoner; Sonya Blade. Close to home, they decided to celebrate, becoming smashed with their own big-headed victory. Being the bloody morons they are, they decided that it was safe to have a little shut-eye. You keeping up, hmm?"

Kano tilted his head to the side in an inquisitive manner as he curiously stared down towards her with a smirk on his face. Sonya made it a point to look straight down on the ground and avoid his gaze, despite the prickling she felt on her neck.

"Ah, well never mind. Anyway, the babies were fast asleep, when someone, maybe a rogue Tarkatan stumbled upon them. Well we could never figure out why, but he just couldn't resist oh I don't know... killing every Tarkatan he could find. And that was when he found out that they were transporting cargo. Blade, of course, tried to run, but again of course, she was caught and dragged her back to here. And these mysterious blood patches and the lack of a body will make it clear."

He lowered his mouth to her ear and spoke in a silky soft voice.

"So you see; you should be thanking me. I mean, I have given you the perfect escape route."

He chuckled again before releasing her by both her arm and neck and stepping away. Sonya fell forward and narrowly avoided face-planting by throwing her hands out in front of her. She took a few deep breaths and shuddered as she glanced at the small darker coloured patches.

She had to admit; Kano was right and grudgingly, he was cunning in his plans. Who would look for someone that was believed to be dead?

***ShadowForceSilver***

"Keep walking princess."

"Go stuff yourself Kano."

"Oooh, touchy."

This situation was becoming more like Sonya's personal hell every single second. As soon as Kano had finished touching up his distraction for whoever would come looking, he had wanted to set off in a hurry. But that didn't mean Sonya was going anywhere by herself. After another attempted refusal on Sonya's behalf, they had set off walking into the heart of the dark forest.

The wild thorns tangled themselves in random areas across the overgrown pathway. The silence was suffocating; the only noises that were present were the crunching footsteps as Sonya and Kano moved onward. The emerald dark leaves of the gigantic trees laced their leaves overhead, not allowing a single speck of sunlight to reach them. Because of this, Sonya couldn't tell how light or dark it was. She guessed that it would only be midday at most, despite the fact that they had been walking for hours.

Having that thought in her head, she placed her other foot to the ground with a stomp. She refused to go any further. Kano had a mixed expression of confusion and irritation on his face, and couldn't decide on whether he should shove her forward or just throw her over his shoulder like the Tarkata had done.

"What happened, stab your toe on a rock again?"

Sonya's shoulders twitched in infuriation, and she twisted her head around to the side to glower defiantly at him. She tried to speak in a calm manner, but her throat was constricted and her teeth were clenched.

"I'm not walking any further Kano. I won't take another step."

Kano sighed and shook his head; was this supposed to be some kind of stunt?

"Ok, now whose fault is it that they didn't get a little bit of sleep. Unless you want to be massacred, I suggest you move it."

Sonya's eyes narrowed and her fingers twitched as her fury increased.

"I. Will. Not. Go. Any. Further."

Kano let out an annoyed breath and grabbed her bound hands, yanking them back roughly. Determined not to lose, she yanked back and pulled herself free of Kano's grasp. He gave a shout of surprise as she leapt forward and tried to escape, but he reached forward and ensnared her once again. With his free hand he grasped her by the top of her head and jerked her head backwards, resulting in a howl of pain from Sonya.

"Now listen here. I don't feel like arguing with you all day when I could be getting out of here."

Sonya stilled as he released her hair and pushed her forward, causing her to stumble as she fell. Kano rubbed the back of his head and pressed his mouth into a straight line of grimace. The silence of the forest did nothing to break up the awkward air surrounding them. Sonya snuck a look behind her at Kano's back, her eyes brightening slyly.

"I need to go," she said tonelessly.

Kano didn't register what she said at all.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get you to do that for ages. But, nooo..."

He looked up at her, and seeing the expression on her face, saw that he had misunderstood. His lips spread into a smirk, making Sonya feel uneasy. He gestured with his hand toward her, the smile widening.

"Go right ahead then."

Sonya's expression became horrified, and her tone was barely contained.

"A, I'm not _going_ in my pants and with my hands tied behind my back and B, I'm definitely not going with you standing here you goddamn pervert."

Kano feigned hurt and spoke with a offended tone, "Oh, that wounded me baby. But you don't seriously think I'm going to untie your hands and just turn a blind eye, do you?"

He searched around for a nearby tree with a lower branch and let out a "Eureka!" when he found one. Without offering much notice yet again, he grabbed Sonya and pulled her backwards towards the tree.

"You will be able to make do with one hand, won't you?"

He untied the series of knots that had shackled one of her hands, causing her to give a smirk of her own.

"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere!"

Sonya spun her body rapidly, pirouetting on one toe and pulling her free hand out of Kano's grasp. As she turned to face him, her swinging hand balled into a fist and slammed itself into Kano's temple, effectively knocking him to the ground in a daze. Not wasting time, Sonya lashed out viciously with her foot and caught him in the stomach, causing Kano to let out another shout.

Giving a short and nervous chuckle of victory, she turned tail and ran as fast away as she could, looking to put as much distance as she could between herself and her enemy.

***ShadowForceSilver***

_Those fools are very unwise to test our emperor's patience..._

Even though the mouth on the Tarkatan's face was opened in a manical grin, his tawny coloured eyes were narrowed with great amounts of annoyance, thought and genuine concern. Those Tarkatan warriors were amongst the best in his army, and to lose such assets was one of the greatest inconveniences in these hard times.

Baraka thoughtfully stared through the heavily stained glass windows of Shao Kahn's castle, his pupils raking over the vast expenses of lifeless land of Outworld. His eyes were searching for the missing team; they were due back this morning with their prize. Shao Kahn was not at all pleased to learn that his plan of stealing away one of Raiden's warriors was failing.

As soon as the anger of the emperor and the general confusion had dissipated, Shao Kahn ordered Baraka to send out another band of warriors to seek out the missing Tarkatans and the elusive Sonya Blade. They had left when the bright sun was burning in the middle of the sky; it was now beginning to die. Concern over the loss of more warriors came back to him, making him grimace. It was then that he realized that someone was attempting to address him.

"Captain..."

Baraka turned around to find a rather awkward looking Tarkatan addressing him, his shabby and common armour marking him as a soldier in the lower ranks. No doubt his scout team had returned and had passed the message onto someone they considered themselves better than. The Tarkatan seemed nervous and skittish, leaving Baraka to think that this fighter was afraid of him. But when he realized that the news this Tarkatan bore could not be well, he knew that the younger male was afraid of what punishment could be bestowed upon the messenger of grim news.

"Speak."

Baraka's voice was firm and commanding, spurring the other male into momentarily forgetting his fear, causing him to speak in a confident tone himself.

"I'm afraid I bring bad news..."

Baraka's eyes closed as he exhaled; he knew this was coming.

"We found the band in the western sector of the woods. It seems their throats had been cut by one of their own weapons. All that remains of them is ... there's nothing left Captain but a pile of smoking corpses."

Baraka felt the loss of a comrade drive a spike into his care for his army, but orders took control over emotions.

"And the girl; Sonya Blade?"

The Tarkatan youngster looked uncomfortable again.

"There's no sign of her. There is a short trail in the woods, but it seems that she was dragged back to the camp. From there we found patches and disturbances in the grass and ... traces of human blood. I don't think she's alive any longer. The whole band was taken by surprise. I'm sorry Captain."

Baraka turned and looked away from the messenger to hide the sorrow in his orange eyes. This was not going well.

"What happens to us now?"

Baraka turned to look over his shoulder, all expression gone from his face.

"Go now and rest. I must inform our emperor of this."

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><p><strong>Sooooo, how did thee like this? Good good good ^^ Baraka (he was the guest btw) and his little army have fell for smexy Kano's trick, and they are pretty much out of the picture lol. And Sonya has escaped Kano once again, but this time she has a lot more to worry about than an old enemy. Why's that you say? Well you'll find out whenever I stop being lazy again and write.<strong>

**In the meantime, for other SonyaXKano lovers, read my Legacy story and the story "Outrealm High". It shouldn't be too hard to find, it's the only other SXK story apart from mine lol ^^**

**Ta ta Shadow ^^**


	6. Chapter 6 : Definitely for Worse

**Hello dear readers,**

**Oh haven't I been a very bad writer? I've left you on the edge for so long, shame on me! Well, it was because I didn't know what to do for part 2, which is another scene with Jax. **

**EDIT; I just edited Jax's scene, best to let you find out about my new fic yourself lol. Also it made this fic seem to AU for now.**

**EDITED EDIT; Guess what? I took out Jax's scene all together and replaced with an entirely new scene that would probably make sense later on lol.**

**But for now, read on. Suscribe, fav and review to your heart's content ^^**

***Shadow**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 6:**

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><p>Ouch. The only other thing that Kano was aware of apart from the throbbing ache in his stomach was the sound of rapidly fading footsteps. Sonya had literally sucker punched him in the face and kicked him once he was down. And then she had ticked off! The nerve that woman had! Kano shook his head and tried to rise into a sitting position, immediately wincing as the muscles in his abdomen protested with a shriek. He let out another agitated sigh, and pushed himself to stand. The muscles shrieked again. <em>Oh low blow Sonya. Low blow. <em>Then again, if she had kicked him any lower he would be in real strife. That thought alone made him grimace.

He looked in the direction that Sonya had disappeared; no doubt she was long gone. He growled angrily at himself and pounded his fist on the nearby tree. It was stupid to underestimate her; it turned out that she was as sly as he was when she wanted to be. _Slippery minx_, he thought with a scowl. He pounded the tree again. He had lost his only chance. And it had been running along so nicely as well.

His plan had been to get out of Outworld as quick as he could, avoiding any foes that became obstacles. Fighting would only waste valuable time. His next step was finding the portal and going through it. But on the bad side, that portal led directly into the Wu Shi Academy. And there was not a single doubt in his mind that they would not be pleased to find one of their enemies on their territory. Having to fight his way out against countless very angry kombatants would be inevitable.

And that was where Sonya came in; simply put, she was a bargaining chip. His plan was to exchange Sonya to the Earthrealm defenders in return for them allowing him to leave without harm. If they needed an extra "nudge", he was sure that drawing his Butterfly Knife would be enough to convince them that he meant business. It really was amazing to see what people would do once you had their friend at your mercy. But without Sonya, that plan would be nonexistent. Meaning that his next step was tracking her down once again.

He weighed his options. If it was anything like last time, Sonya would not give a single damn about where she was going as long as it took her far away from Kano. Even if that meant she would leave a painfully obvious trail. That was a plus. He looked upwards at the sky and grimaced; the sun was slowly setting, meaning it would get dark pretty quickly. That was a minus. When it got dark, he would need to make another fire to light a torch; there was no way he was going all the way back to the starting point. That was another minus.

He stretched his arms down and let out a yawn, breaking off as his arms brushed against something leather. His lips spread into a smile; definite plus. He had two leather pouches strapped to his sides. Feeling like it was Christmas, he unstrapped the one on his left and lifted the flap. It mostly contained bread, the jerky meat and two flasks that were dangerously close to empty. There was also a flint and tinderbox inside that Kano took note of before he closed the pouch and strapped it back onto his belt. The other one contained a spare dagger and a row of cloth. Why he had packed that was beyond him, but he was sure that it would come in handy sooner or later. Finally, he was conscious of a curl of rope looped around his belt. It kind of made him feel like a cowboy. He snickered at that and pretended to draw an imaginary gun from its holster to shoot at the distance.

After holstering his imaginary weapon, his mouth turned into a thin line as he grimaced. He didn't fancy scouting the whole of Outworld for one woman. But the benefits would well be worth it. He yawned and stretched his arms out before setting out in the direction Sonya had fled. His eyes flickered over the path she had taken until it veered left sharply. He turned and stared curiously into the dark forest where she had disappeared. As he thought, the trail was painfully obvious; she had disturbed the long grass and had flattened a few saplings at the base of some of the trees. Not that he was complaining of course.

He unsheathed his Butterfly knife, which gave a metallic hiss as it slid free from its cover at his belt. Narrowing his eyes as he pushed a low tree branch out of his way, he was soon swallowed up by the darkness of the deep forest.

***ShadowForceSilver***

Baraka waited quietly and anxiously as the blazing eyes of Shao Kahn furiously regarded him through the gaps in the huge skull helmet. As Baraka had guessed, the emperor had not taken the scout's news lightly. No he wasn't upset that a whole band of his finest Tarkatan warriors had been slaughtered. It was the fact that his plan was failing. Shang Tsung stood to the side of the emperor's throne, also nervous at the emperor's fury.

"Rather unfortunate, my emperor."

Shao Kahn ignored him as always, keeping his focus on Baraka.

"Are you telling me that not only your ignorant buffoons have gotten themselves killed, but that we have lost our only bargaining chip?"

His voice was deathly quiet and controlled, so Baraka decided it was best not to point out that they were his finest soldiers.

"Yes master," he answered in a defeated tone. "But I believe that the girl is still alive despite what my sources say."

Shao Kahn lifted his head in interest, and Baraka saw it as a chance to redeem his army.

"I believe that sending another band of my soldiers out will be-"

"No, your race has done enough." Shao Kahn dismissed the Tarkatan general with a wave of his hand. Baraka paused in indecision before submissively lowering his head and stepping away. Those who were also present watched him as he stood in the crowd with and ashamed emotion in his eyes.

The purple clad monstrosity Mileena, who sat perched on the steps of her emperor's throne watched him with delight in her eyes; she took pleasure in seeing all kinds of pain. Her small giggle echoed in the empty silence of the throne room.

"Motaro. Goro." The two stepped forward at the Emperor's summoning, stubbornly trying to avoid each other's eye. The Shokan female Sheeva watched anxiously as her captain walked forward to stand beside their most hated enemy.

"This is my final test for both Centaurian and Shokan," Shao Kahn began, attracting the attention of all who were present.

"I want you to send your finest warrior out onto the trail of the Earthrealm warrior Sonya Blade. Whoever brings her back alive will win many riches, many privileges and my eternal favour."

There was a prolonged and shocked silence that rang out in the throne room; even Mileena was stunned as she looked up at her father in awe. Having two races that hated each other with such passion was surely not a good thing?

Goro shiftily eyed his rival beside him; maybe this was a chance to make it clear to his emperor that the Shokan were clearly superior and deserved his favour. Motaro on the other hand was confident that the rewards were already for the Centaurians to take.

He stepped forward confidently, his eyes narrowed in satisfaction and his silver tail slowly moving from side to side. He lowered his head in respect before he began to speak.

"My emperor. I have the perfect warrior."

Shao Kahn inclined his head sharply. "And who might that be?"

Motaro raised his hand to gesture towards the crowd, where a pale shape broke away and stood beside his master.

"My champion is willing to do your bidding." Motaro presented the pale Centaurian to Shao Kahn with extreme elegance and grandeur. The pale warrior smiled sadistically and bowed respectfully before gazing back up at the tyrant emperor.

"When do I begin?"

Shao Kahn nodded, clearly impressed.

"Immediately."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Sonya took another stumbling step forward as she let out another tortured wheeze, her feet feeling like cement as she attempted to drag them forward. Her body was drenched with cold sweat and her breath came out in ragged gasps, making it obvious that she was rapidly running out of energy. She shakily pushed a tree branch out of her makeshift trail and took a few slow steps forward, trying her best to ignore the stabbing pain in her feet. Her vision began to blur and she stumbled again. After a sense of falling down, she found that she had collapsed in a crumpled and exhausted heap amongst some curiously blue stained ferns.

She had run as fast as she could away from Kano, and her frenzied retreat had carried on until the sun had set, running on any random path she could find. However, those paths weren't always the best choice; racing through a tangle of sharp thorned brambles left her with a dozen red scratches all over her face and arms. A trip through a river that was much deeper than she had thought had left her damp from the waist down and shivering in the cold air. The slash that Kano had made on her arm had faded from an angry wound to a mildly irritating scabbed-over mark, but it did nothing to make Sonya feel any better.

She took another deep breath as she attempted to collect her thoughts and plan a strategy; all she got however was an empty head and the constant thought of _"tired" "tired" "tired"._ There was no doubt that her brain was not going to help her out here. Sonya let out an annoyed huff in between her pants. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Kano was right when he said that it was her own fault for not having a snooze when she had the chance. She quickly pushed the idea of Kano's gloating smirk from her head; she wanted to sleep and not be plagued with nightmares.

But no matter how hard she tried, her eyes would not shut. The ever-present threat of Kano finding her, as well as a random passing Outworld soldier set her on edge way too much. That and the forest she found herself surrounded by. Despite the strange animal calls that seemed to be a cross between a bird and reptile and the familiar cricket chirps, it seemed too ... _still._ The night was bitterly cold even though there was no breeze to even rustle the leaves. Then again, the trees were so close together that she didn't think that they could be rustled by wind anyway.

And then she heard something in the dead silence. A rustling thump. As if on cue, all the animals closest to her silenced themselves mid-call, waiting and listening. Even the night birds that had started gentle and blissful melodies minutes ago ended their song with a distressed squawk and a frenzied flutter of feathers. Sonya's heart leapt into her throat as there was a second shuffling footstep. All the fears of Kano discovering where she was came flooding back in a flash of thoughts and colours.

_But, he can't have caught up to me already!_

The thought popped into her head before Sonya could stop it with plenty more following after that; _What will I do? How will I kill him? Should I kill him? Of course I should kill him! Where am I supposed to go? How long have I got to act? _She almost found it impossible to breath at the thoughts attacking her mind, each buzzing for her undivided attention. But as soon as the panic had come, Sonya forced it back down, scolding herself like a mother scolds a child. Acting like a chicken with its head cut off would not get her anywhere.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she silently lifted herself into a sitting position, listening intently for another footstep. Agonizing seconds passed. But then suddenly, there was a loud crackle of dead leaves on the floor to her right. Sonya's head whipped in the direction of the sound, catching her breath as she stared out into the darkness. The lack of noise was eerie and unsettling.

And then, as if the creature could hear Sonya's mind it began to move off into the distance with a snort and chuckle. The wildlife slowly restarted it's nightlife cries; including low howls in the far-off distance that were then answered with a higher howl and shriek. Sonya let out a relieved sigh; she didn't like her chances if a Tarkatan or even worse, a Centaurian had found her. There was no way she was going back to Shao Kahn when she was close to escaping Outworld.

She slowly rose to her feet, finding new energy in the fact that she had escaped one of her threats. Stretching her arms and arching her back like a cat, she barely stifled a yawn as she took a step backwards. Right onto a stick. A splitting crack carved through the air and brought the wildlife to a stop once again as the sound echoed between the trees. And then there was a pounding of footfalls rapidly approaching. Sonya sharply inhaled and froze; her expression resembling that of a deer caught in the headlights more and more.

_Run you idiot! Run!_

Sonya thought desperately, but her body was unwilling to comply with orders. The footfalls had increased in sound and frequency, which meant that whoever it was was getting closer. And as it got closer, Sonya was reminded strangely of... horses. Sonya's throat went dry and she gulped; that meant it was a...

Interrupting her train of thought, a bulky shape suddenly burst from the bushes directly in front of her, resulting in the shrieking cries of the birds closest to Sonya as they fled. Sonya's eyes widened in horror and she let out a shrill scream as the figure laughed sadistically and charged.


	7. Chapter 7 : Questioning Motives

**Hey there MK fans ^^**

**Yes, I know . I abadonned my "Fate" fic again. I'm dreading the disapointment from all the RE fans lol. Well, I got this in a few hours (I kept getting distracted... Nicely done Desi with all of your awesome messages lol :D ) So here we are :D **

**If you think Kano is pure smexiness, review, fav and subscribe XD  
>Til next time<strong>

***Shadow**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 7**

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><p>Sonya barely had time to dodge the charging monster before he slammed straight into her, making her fly backwards. She flattened long leaved ferns around her as she landed from her momentary flight, the fall driving the air from her lungs. As soon as she had gasped enough air, she had sat up to face her attacker before letting out a pained cry. Her chest felt like it had been smashed in with a sledgehammer, and she feared what damage had been done. But there was a more pressing matter at hand.<p>

Wincing and holding her side frailly, she struggled to stand and face her foe. Even though the pain made her ears thump and her eyes water, she held her head up and limped a few steps forward to meet the challenge. There was a look of fiery determination in Sonya's eyes, which caused the stranger to utter a deep and booming chuckle.

"Are you lost little girl?" he asked mockingly. "How about I help you find your way?"

It was a Centaurian as Sonya had guessed; a big ugly brute that was one of Shao Kahn's most favoured warriors. This particular one had a very pale colouring that made him stand out from the leafy darkness of the surrounding forest. In both of his hands, he held a long iron spear with a sharp and deadly point at the end. Sonya guessed that this was what he had pushed her back with. His amber eyes burned in anticipation, the pupils narrowing into snake-like slits as he bared his teeth at the woman standing across from him.

Sonya lifted her chin upwards to glare defiantly at the monstrosity before her. "How about you turn around and get your ass back to whatever hole you crawled out from before I get really pissed off?"

The Centaurian let out a loud and hearty snigger before sneering sadistically at her. "The prey has some fight in it... or so it seems."

He broke off with another snigger and began tearing the earth beneath him as he pawed the ground. Sonya took another step forward before straightening up and readying herself. She bit her teeth as she tried to ignore the pain in her chest. Hopefully, nothing was broken.

She swiftly surveyed her surroundings for anything that could be used as a weapon. Ferns wouldn't give her much of a hand, neither would the occasional twig. No, she would have to fight this battle with her arms and legs only. Already the outcome was looking grim as she turned back to face the enemy.

With an ear-splitting roar, the Centaurian charged forward again, brandishing the giant spear viciously as he pelted forward. But Sonya had a bit more time to prepare and threw herself to the side as the Centaurian rushed past. Almost too late did he realize that his target was behind him, and he tried to slow himself and break so he could turn back around.

But momentum carried him forward and he crashed into one of the smaller trees. A section of the tree nearly exploded on impact in a shower of bark and chunks of wood. With a lot of the support gone in the trunk, the top of the tree gave an eerie creak as it slowly then rapidly fell forward, collapsing onto the grassy space where Sonya used to be.

Taking her opportunity as the Centaurian slowly recovered from his collision, Sonya pressed her foot on the fallen trunk and pried at one of the largest looking branches. With a groan, it slowly cracked from the trunk and came away. Even though it wasn't as pointed as the spear, it was still worth using it as a weapon. With enough strength, the heavy branch could pack quite a punch.

She held her newfound weapon like a baseball bat, breathing heavily as the Centaurian stepped away from the ruins of the tree and turned to face her. Sonya noticed that a mass of large splinters had pierced the flesh on the right side of his face and chest, leaving him looking very angry indeed. Sonya grimaced; if the Centaurian had simply been playing before, she dreaded seeing what he would do if he was in a real bad mood.

***ShadowForceSilver***

With a quick and powerful uppercut, the heavy fist of the Centaurian shattered the branch that Sonya had been using into two pieces, leaving her disadvantaged once again. He then quickly pirouetted; his heavy body smashing Sonya backwards into another tree, making her give out a yell as her back connected with the rock hard wood. She fell to the floor in an exhausted heap, only looking up to see the Centaurian charging her again.

Swiftly, she rolled to the side to avoid the giant hooves that would kick her skull in instantly. After colliding head-first with a tree once again, the Centaurian swiftly swung his head from side to side as his silver metallic tail swung irritably. Seeing her broken branch and a chance to do some of her own damage, Sonya seized the branch and ran up behind him. With a swift stabbing motion, she buried the sharp branch into the side of the Centaurian. Ignoring the loud roar of pain from the Centaurian, she quickly tugged the branch free from its fleshy prison before burying it into the same spot, making the wound deeper.

But before she could strike again, the Centaurian acted. With something equivalent to a backhand slap, Sonya was sent flying across the clearing before landing heavily on her back. The Centaurian pulled the bloodied stake out from his side before tossing it away. There was pure fury dancing in the amber flames of his eyes now.

He spoke in a deep menacing tone as he advanced slowly.

"I'm going to kill you human. I'm going to smash your skull into a thousand pieces."

The fury in his voice increased as he shouted more threats.

"I will tear you limb from limb and crush your heart as you watch. I will reduce you to nothing but the steaming pile of flesh your pitiful carcass already is. You will learn what happens when such an inferior being crosses a mighty Centaurian warrior, the favoured of Outworld!"

Sonya rose to her feet, sweeping a few strands of hair out of her face. She pointed at the Centaurian threateningly and shouted a war cry of her own; practical and a lot more to the point.

"Come and try it you brute!"

The Centaurian was more than happy to oblige. He charged forward again, but changed his tactics halfway through. Rather than just let his weight carry him forward, he swung to the side to hopefully intercept her. He was skilled in his instincts and collided with a very surprised Sonya. Wasting no time, he seized her with one giant hand and readied his spear with the other. Sonya looked up to stare death in the face as the spearhead glinted eagerly.

Ignoring the crushing grip and the ignorance of where this Centaurian's hand had been, Sonya dove down and sank her teeth into the beefy hand that was gripping her. It was more out of surprise than pain that the Centaurian released his grip on her. But rather than fall to the ground in a heap, Sonya seized the Centaurian's muscular arm and clambered up over his shoulder and onto his back, seizing his head in both of her hands and pulling back.

The Centaurian let out a roar as he felt his neck being pulled back by the blonde woman that he was so close to killing. He tried to reach his hands behind his back to pry her off, but Sonya had already acted before he could touch her. Taking hold of one of the Centaurian's twisted horns and pulling the Centaurian's head to the side, she used her other hand to poke her fingers into the Centaurian's eye.

There was a terrible shrieking sound from the Centaurian as he desperately grabbed any part of Sonya that he could and flung her away from him as hard as he could. Sonya's head spun from the impact and she struggled to get back on her feet. But before she could move, a heavy hoof had slammed down onto her chest and held her down.

Sonya opened her eyes to see the damage she had caused. One of the eyes of the Centaurian was screwed shut, but one could guess at the damage by the blood covered skin surrounding his eye. The other eye was narrowed furiously at her, obviously seeing red at this final insult. The spear was facing down at her again, but despite Sonya's struggles, she couldn't free herself.

"Die." The Centaurian growled fiercely.

And with no hesitation, the spearhead plunged down followed by a loud scream of pain.

***ShadowForceSilver* **

There was a strange crackling sound to Sonya's left that she couldn't quite comprehend in her drowsiness. Why did her shoulder ache so much? Why was there a dull thumping feeling in her chest? Slowly, she turned her head to the left and inched her eyes opened slowly to see a glowing fire not too far away. There wasn't a fire there before. There was a raging Centaurian there instead.

Sonya screwed her eyes shut again and let out a small groan as she attempted to move over onto her side. What had happened to her? The last thing she had remembered was the Centaurian standing over her, pinning her down... a spearhead plunging towards her... a stabbing pain in her shoulder. That last thought spurred her into action.

Ignoring the screeching protest in her rib cage, Sonya inched herself into a sitting position and felt her right shoulder, surprised to feel a padded makeshift bandage. What the hell? Sonya thought, as she reached to tear the bandage away to see what damage had been done. But before she could grasp the rough cloth in her hand, a cool metal blade rested upon her hand, halting it in its action.

"I really wouldn't do that." A voice cautioned her calmly. Sonya tried to force her brain to work, she knew that voice but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

For now, she ignored the voice and slapped the blade away, again going for the bandage. But as quickly as she had acted, the stranger was even faster. Grasping her slender wrist in one hand and pulling it out to her side, he pushed her back down, pinning her by her other shoulder.

"Really baby, I wouldn't. That bandage could be the single barrier preventing you bleeding out." The weight lifted itself off of her hand and the cool blade came back to rest at her throat.

"And we don't want that happening, do we?"

Sonya struggled feebly under the hold and opened her eyes to stare upwards. A distinctive red glare stared back, making Sonya let out another groan. This one was more out of annoyance than pain.

Kano chuckled at her reaction and drummed his fingers softly on her shoulder. "Heh, you are always so happy to see me aren't you?"

The blade softly tapped her on the cheek, making her flinch away.

"Go away." Sonya whispered softly, again trying to struggle away. But Kano wasn't going to let her go so easily, and brought the knife back to her throat.

"Now now baby, if it weren't for me, you would have been killed. I mean, who was going to kill that Centaurian and patch you up? You? Hmm?"

Sonya was silent at this; as much as she didn't want to admit it, he was apparently right. But there was one thing that was still gnawing at her mind.

"Why didn't you just let me die?" She asked softly.

"Pfft, I'm not the one with the unbreakable grudge aren't I?"

Kano softly answered, gently running one of the fingers that held the dagger over her cheek. Sonya flinched away again and turned her eyes away. Almost teasingly, Kano drew back and leaned back on his heels and looked down at her with a smirk on his face.

Refusing to be down on the ground anymore, Sonya took a deep breath and tried to raise herself into a sitting position. But Kano thought different, placing his hand on her shoulder again before she could rise.

"I don't think that is the best thing to be doing. Now, how about you get some rest? I'm sure we will all feel better in the morning."

With no reply, he lifted his hand off her and pushed himself into a standing position. Satisfied that Sonya wouldn't be going anywhere soon, he turned away and walked over to the fire. Before he sat down, he turned his head over his shoulder and turned around to stare back at Sonya with the red eye glinting in the darkness.

"Oh by the way baby, I wouldn't try to do another runner eh? We all know how that turned out."

Unsurprisingly, Kano received no answer.


	8. Chapter 8 : Ground Rules

**HEY YOU! Yeah you! You know, reading these letters right here... Well who the hell do you think I'm talking to? That creepy guy reading over your shoulder? (Did you just look over your shoulder *troll face*) Anyway, before you go one line further, go back to Chapter 6 and read the new middle paragraph I put in. It will make a whole lot more sense with the pale Centaurian... Why the hell are you still reading this? Click that drop-down box and bugger off XD!**

**So, you're back? You read it? Awesome! You don't like it? Does it look like I care? No I'm joking, I care very much :)**

**Anyway,**

**Hello Dear Readers,**

**Here is a partciulary juicy chapter for all you Sonya X Kano lovers out there, and I moved the J JC scene here so more Outworld time could have passed lol.**

**Anyway read on, and be sure to leave a delightful review for me :)**

***Shadow**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 8**

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><p>A strange yet almost normal tweeting sound buzzed irritably in Sonya's ears, forcing her eyes to tiredly flutter open. She was greeted by the golden sunlight peeking at her throughout the tightly-knit branches above her and the far-off singing that reminded her of songbirds. Why was it that Outworld seemed so cheery in the morning?<p>

She further observed the clearing she was in, ignoring the bulky shape on the far side of the clearing and another shape sleeping by the fire. Instead she focused on the sounds of the animals, the dew coating the grasses at the foot of the trees and the sweet piny scent in the air. It was the small moment of calm before the storm that she found herself appreciating more than anything.

Wearily, Sonya shut her eyes and let out a silent yawn before lifting her head, giving her more vision on her surroundings. Flexing her shoulders tiredly as she pushed herself into a sitting position, she winced at the sudden flare of pain in her left shoulder. She hoped that it wouldn't give her too much trouble during her temporary stay; she needed every advantage she could get her hands on.

Taking a deep breath and biting her lip, she used the tree trunk she was leaning against to shakily stand up. There was a sharp pain in her chest as she straightened up, causing her to take a sharp breath before gritting her teeth. This was just perfect; that was two injuries. Stupid Centaurian. Stupid Sonya. Stupid...

She caught herself at that thought and turned her head to stare suspiciously at the motionless figure by the fire, narrowing her eyes from habit. She couldn't just let it all go because of one occasion. She let out a deep breath, feeling the hate overtaking her before she had even realized it. It was scary to think how much the grudge could blind and control her, but she often had bigger things to worry about than her inner cry for vengeance.

Deciding to seek a distraction, she silently wandered over to the gigantic corpse of the Centaurian who had attacked her. The massive splinters were still wedged firmly in his flesh, and the gaping stab wound she had caused on his flank had seemed to bleed out even more as he died. His damaged eye was open now, and Sonya felt a dark satisfaction at seeing what damage she had dealt in return. The dark blood stains and gore contrasted with his pale white skin and hair. Even though she had come out second best on the fight, she had done pretty well in dragging the ugly sucker down with her. But her inspection forced her to overlook the wounds she had not inflicted.

New injuries included numerous slashes and stab wounds all over his body, but the thing that had done the deed was the extremely sharp dagger that had been thrust up under his chin and into his head. There was still a vacant look of surprise etched into the Centaurian's face, and Sonya felt a small stab of resentment; she could have handled herself just fine. She certainly did not need _him_ to be sniffing around again.

Sonya stole another glance behind her, an idea forming in her head. And she found herself automatically considering it. Yes, it was slimy. Yes, it went against her beliefs of a fair fight. But it also promised solitude and the possibility of vengeance. She turned back to the Centaurian and took hold of the dagger, softly wriggling it free. It came free from its fleshy prison with a sickly squelching noise and Sonya turned it around to look at it from both sides, scowling at the black dragon etched into the blade near the hilt. It was a strangely graceful yet unquestionably deadly weapon and she always remembered what blood it had spilt in the past, but it was all she had right now.

She turned her back on the dead corpse and started to stalk soundlessly towards the campfire, the bloodied blade in hand. When she reached the softly smoking fire, she hesitated momentarily. It seemed so wrong, but she was determined to go through with it. Nobody would lose sleep over one more dead thug. Sonya tightened her grip on the dagger, her eyes narrowing as she took a silent breath. Without waiting another moment, she thrust the blade down, preparing to strike Kano in the chest.

***ShadowForceSilver***

Kano was a man who always trusted his instincts; whether it involved his illegal business or daily routines. Unlike other men who scoffed at the idea of intuition, he thrived on it. It was a handy tool that had allowed him to get out of a number of sticky situations and he never questioned his gut. Right now, his gut was telling him to move. And fast.

Kano did not hesitate and swiftly rolled to the side as he narrowly evaded a large silver dagger plunging into his side. There was a short cry of surprise as he rolled away, causing Kano to curiously look up into the shocked but determined gaze of Sonya Blade. _Does the bloody woman ever quit?_ Kano wondered to himself as he pushed himself into a standing position and sneered mockingly at the blonde woman in front of him.

Sonya momentarily struggled to tug the dagger out of the grassy earth before standing herself and glaring viciously back. Kano wondered how she got a hold of his own weapon, and experienced a brief moment of dread before being reassured by a familiar weight in the scabbard on his right leg. The other knife, he remembered proudly, had been left in the skull of that Centaurian. Sonya had obviously decided that it could be handy and had taken it.

But as a trained fighter in knives and daggers, Kano knew someone who was useless with knives when he saw them. And while Sonya certainly had her own talents, fighting with a dagger certainly wasn't one of them. And the fact that she had one of his Butterfly knives didn't help her; in the hands of a skilled combatant, the slightly curved dagger was a light and elegant but brutal weapon. In the hands of a clueless newbie, it was a heavy hindrance that would probably do more damage to themselves than their enemy.

"You know, it is very rude to disturb somebody who is sleeping." Kano scolded her sarcastically, wiggling his index finger at her.

Sonya narrowed her eyes and glowered fiercely. "I wasn't looking to disturb anyone," she growled.

Kano shrugged his shoulders before he retrieved his other dagger, flipping it skilfully in his hand a couple of times. He then looked up at Sonya and while he smirked at her, he lifted his other hand up and inched his fingers towards him.

"Let's party," he challenged softly.

Sonya wasted no time in answering the dare; she raced forward with a savage war cry, brandishing the dagger wildly. Kano met her halfway in her charge, and swiftly brought his own dagger up to deflect one of Sonya's frenzied strikes. With a harsh clanging sound, Sonya found her dagger far from where she wanted it and desperately tried to correct her position. But Kano had taken advantage of her hesitation, his free hand shooting out to grasp Sonya's wrist, twisting it around. Without another word, he swiftly brought the heavy hilt of his dagger crashing down onto her elbow.

Sonya let out a cry of pain as she felt the dagger connect with the bone in her arm. The unexpected impact made her fumble with her weapon and clumsily drop it.

"That's better, isn't it?" Kano asked cheerfully. "No point having a weapon you can't use, eh?"

Seeing herself at a huge disadvantage, she struggled to pull herself away from Kano's grasp before finally raising her leg to swiftly kick him in the stomach. The blow forced Kano to stumble backwards, and Sonya took the opportunity to slip away from his grasp and dance out of reach as Kano returned with a swipe of his butterfly knife. His single eye patiently followed Sonya as she leapt away from another one of his attacks; Sonya Blade wouldn't be on the defensive for much longer. And he was right.

Tired of simply avoiding Kano, Sonya rushed to meet him head-on with a right hook, aiming to land her punch exactly on the side of Kano's jaw. However, she was taken aback when she realized that all she punched was empty air. Kano had taken over Sonya's tactics and had simply ducked out of the way. Becoming infuriated, Sonya spun around with another wild punch that was supposed to hit Kano squarely in the nose.

But Kano let out a simple bark of laughter and lunged out of the way, easily avoiding the blow. He stepped forward again and rose his dagger to slash at her other shoulder, but Sonya had reacted quicker; leaning back she high-kicked the blade from his hand and sent it spinning away until it landed in the far-off grasses. Ignoring his annoyance, Kano turned his focus back to Sonya just in time to avoid another blow that was meant for the left side of his face, causing another angry cry from Sonya. He let out a loud bark of laughter at her infuriation.

"Stop _trying_ to hit me and hit me!" He goaded her, gesturing to himself.

Falling for the taunt, Sonya's arm flew forwards as she tried to strike him in the face again. But this time, instead of just dodging the blow, Kano stepped forward. He caught Sonya's fist and used her own momentum to twist her around so that she was facing away from him. He then quickly stepped forward so that he was standing right behind her, momentarily releasing her wrist only to seize it again and pull it across her chest. His other hand shot forward and quickly did the same to her other hand, pulling both her arms across her chest. The whole process had taken less than a few seconds and Sonya found herself completely trapped.

Despite this, Sonya struggled as hard as she could, trying to pull the two of them forwards. Kano was quick to respond by yanking her back and pinning her in a grip that reminded Sonya of a very strange and irrelevant bear hug. Gritting her teeth and letting out an agitated growl, Sonya tried to pull away again.

"Let me go," she commanded roughly.

Kano chuckled darkly and craned his neck forward to softly speak in her ear, his smirk slowly stretching from ear to ear.

"Now why would I do that? That' twice you've tried to kill me baby." Kano then considered what he had said and added, "Three times if you count your little trick before, but I won't judge."

Sonya tried to step to the side and drag herself from Kano's grip, but he saw through her actions and yanked her back in front of him, encircling his arms even tighter around Sonya and eventually reducing her violent thrashes to little more than a struggle. Kano moved his lips closer to Sonya's ear, his breath both tickling and repulsing her.

"You really have a strange way of showing your thanks, you know? I'm surprised you have friends."

Sonya feebly tried to resist once again, but was forced to resort to simple commands.

"Let go of me."

Kano's sadistic grin widened in amusement as he let out another snigger; she didn't really expect him to just let her go, did she?

"Now why would I do that, love?" He purred darkly, twisting his head slightly so he could get a better look at her face, which had pretty much done the same thing so she could avoid looking at him.

"I swear, once I get myself free..." she started in a low growl, but Kano interrupted her.

"I'm sure you will do something scary," he said. "But I'm betting that I can take whatever you can throw at me."

Ending the hold with a swift half-kiss on her neck, Kano released her arms and stepped backwards as she fell forward. Sonya skittered away and glared up at him defensively, using one of her hands to rapidly wipe away the memory of Kano's touch on her neck. The ferocity of Sonya's stare made Kano shake his head as he let out another chuckle.

He reached down to pick up one of the abandoned butterfly knives beside him before turning his gaze back to the woman on the ground. Kano narrowed his eyes and smirked at her, pointing the blade at her. Sonya's own eyes flared in response, and her look of distaste increased. He took a step forward and gently placed the sharp blade under her chin, finding amusement at her look of defiance.

"I think we might have to set some ground rules baby."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Jax took another long drink from the small silver flask before swallowing and letting out another depressed sigh. It had been two days since Sonya's capture, but he seriously doubted that Outworld ran on the same time schedule as Earthrealm did. That meant she had been in Outworld even longer. Even longer with _him_. He quickly took another mouthful from the flask to drown those thoughts.

But as much as he wanted to act, Raiden was right; if they went looking for Sonya, Shao Kahn would find out and interpret it as them answering his challenge. It would put Earthrealm at risk. And no matter how much Raiden cared for his kombatants, Jax didn't think he would be willing to put the whole of Earthrealm at risk for a single soul. But it was something Jax could understand. The lesson of "You fall behind, you get left behind" buzzed in his brain, but the other belief of "You never leave a man behind" demanded attention too. It was a conflict that had demanded the flask to come out.

A crunching of footsteps made Jax look up into the face of Johnny Cage, who looked unusually grim. Although Jax wasn't exactly a friend of the actor, he was sure that Johnny was concerned for Sonya's fate too. Johnny reached out for the flask tiredly with Jax robotically handing it to him. Johnny took a long swig that would have made any bar drinker proud. After he had swallowed, Johnny handed back the flask before sitting down beside Jax.

"What are we drinking to?" he asked quietly, leaning back against the wall they sat against.

"Unconsciousness," Jax answered shortly. He fiddled with the crate he sat on before taking another mouthful from the flask.

Johnny looked momentarily uncomfortable before he decided to speak what was on his mind. "Ahem," coughed, clearing his throat before beginning.

"I'm not acting like I don't care or anything or that it's not a big deal, but you seem especially concerned."

Jax wasn't exactly in the mood to trade life stories, so he answered in the bluntest way he could. "Sonya has just been kidnapped by mutant warriors and we can't go save her without endangering the whole world. Apart from that, I'm just swell."

He took another swig before handing the flask to Johnny, who gratefully accepted it. Johnny thought carefully before trying again.

"No I meant like, do you think she can't handle herself?"

"Sonya Blade is one of the best people I've worked with. She should do just fine by herself," Jax answered defensively.

Johnny held his hands up like he was shielding himself. "Hey, I didn't mean anything. Really."

Jax sighed and took another mouthful from the flask before leaning back so his head rested against the wall. He let out a sigh before handing the flask to Johnny again. "I don't expect you to understand Cage, it was a long time ago. But the fact that Sonya still holds onto it is a huge thorn in my side."

Johnny nodded before something clicked; Sonya had seemed quite hostile towards one of the kombatants in particular. Who was he again? Ca..Cain...Kan...Kano. In fact, he had overheard his conversation on the bridge while he was hanging on for dear life. It was clear that they were anything but friends.

"Wait a minute. Who's Kano?"

Jax stiffened before turning his head to look sideways at Johnny. His voice had a tone of suspicion.

"What do you know about Kano?"

Johnny shrugged. "Very little. Care to tell a story?" He gestured around them with a lazy swing of his hand. The academy grounds were deserted and deathly silent. Raiden, Liu Kang and Kung Lao were meeting somewhere in the academy to discuss suitable plans and strategies. The rest of Earth realm's defenders were working away their time with pointless activities or sitting down like Jax. "It's not like we're doing anything else around here," he continued.

Jax sighed and took a large mouthful and swallowed before beginning. Johnny noticed with dismay that he held onto the flask.

"A while back, my team was assigned to investigate and shut down a very dangerous gang called the Black Dragon. I was just a captain back then, and Sonya had barely joined up. Sonya, I knew it was a mistake to involve her, but with her impressive results... I just thought she could help us out."

Johnny nodded thoughtfully and nearly leapt for joy when Jax handed the flask over before he continued.

"We encountered an informant on the job, an ex-gang member who was seeking protection in exchange for testifying against the Black Dragon. Sonya took it as her job to get whatever she could out of him, and she tackled the job with persistence and patience. Before we knew, the informant was singing like a bird; warehouse locations, gang members, the illegal operations they were doing as well as other stuff I could use to incriminate them all. I thought the job was done for, but I didn't know that Kano wasn't who he said he was."

Johnny widened his eyes in surprise. "What do you mean? I'm pretty sure he was the leader. How could you have fallen for it?"

Jax shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "We had little information on the Black Dragon to begin with, so we had no idea that Kano was in fact getting information from our operation and all of the police itself. They were probably all laughing at us."

Jax let out a mirthless chuckle before turning grim. Johnny guessed that this was the unhappy ending of the story.

"Kano showed his true colours when we invaded one of warehouses he told us the Black Dragon used as their base. We were ambushed, and I lost most of my team to that scum. Kano was pretty handy with a knife; he killed her partner. Slit his throat." Jax drew his finger slowly across his throat and made a ripping noise with his tongue.

"If I hadn't got to Sonya when I did, he would have killed her too, or they would have killed each other. Probably would have succeeded as well. In all the years that I have known Sonya, I never seen her so vengeful like she was that day."

Johnny raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean exactly?"

Jax seemed to consider what he said before he answered, and even looked like he wouldn't answer at all. "During her interrogations, Sonya took whatever Kano told her and brought it straight to me. Every single lie, false plan..."

Jax rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Sonya believes that it was her fault that we lost the unit, her partner, everything. She has been crying for Kano's blood ever since. Do you see why I'm worried?"

Johnny nodded, even though the alcohol made it harder for the message to get through to him.

"I'm worried that Sonya will make another stupid mistake, but this time, I won't be there to save her."


	9. Chapter 9 : Trying the Temper

**Oh hello there again!**

**Yes, guess who has decided to emerge from underneath their rock lol? Not me, I'm too classy to live under a rock XD**

**Anyway, here is another chapter of Fate for all you SonyaXKano addicts out there :D Chock full with those little moments just for you my dear readers! **

**Oh, I hope you enjoy ;)  
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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 9  
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><p>As Kano smothered the still-smoking fire, he was well aware of Sonya glaring daggers at his back. He let out a sigh; she really didn't need to make this any harder than it had to be. But as he straightened and prepared to turn around, Sonya got up herself and stalked away. Kano blinked at her departure and after fixing his spare Butterfly Knife to his right leg, he turned and followed her.<p>

Sonya had walked over to the giant Centaurian once again and seemed to be inspecting the fallen warrior with a look of irritation. No doubt she was unhappy that she hadn't been able to defeat her opponent herself... and that she had to rely on him. Yeah, that probably would have been the one.

Sonya turned her head slightly at Kano's approach, but other than that made no other sign of knowing he was there. She stood rigidly like a statue, with her arms crossed across her chest and let out a deep sigh. Kano cocked his head to look at her expectantly, and sure enough she began to speak.

"So, what happened then?"

Kano smirked at the slight resentment in her voice and was sure to answer in a very satisfied tone.

"Hmmm, why so curious darling?"

Sonya's shoulders tensed at his reply and Kano humorously thought that he better continue before he got her too ticked off.

"Well, if you are really desperate to know, I'll tell you then," started Kano before he cleared his throat dramatically. Sonya was still motionless but it was obvious that her temper was close to breaking again.

"Hmm, well I was I was just strolling throughout the forest looking for someone who was rude enough to punch me in the stomach when I heard this almighty shriek to my right. Feeling that any lead was better than none at all, I followed my gut. And sure enough, who do I see with a big whopping spear in their shoulder with this big ole brute on the other end. Oh, that's you by the way."

Sonya let out a stiff sigh and raised her chin, conscious of the fact that her shoulder injury had begun to itch. She was also aware that Kano had silently taken another step closer to her before he continued.

"Well, I thought to myself 'I can't just let that dear Sonya Blade bleed to death.' So being the dashing hero I am, I dove in and fought off against that Centaurian. Sure he took a few bits with me, but I got him in the end. Put my trusty dagger to good use and gave it a new home."

Sonya turned her head slightly again to stare back at Kano, who's eyes glinted back at her. She hadn't noticed before, but his left ear seemed to have been missing a big chunk. It looked like someone had carved a slice of flesh from the middle of his ear. Even though it probably was a childish thought, Sonya felt slightly smug at the fact that he had also emerged from the encounter with battle scars.

"And after I had finished him off, I turned back to you. It was quite annoying actually; the fact that the bugger had yanked the spear out with him made it that much harder to stop you bleeding. After I had patched you up, I looked after your other boo-boos."

Sonya scoffed accusingly and turned away from him, "Yeah, you tore my shirt."

Kano shrugged and spoke carelessly, "Well I wasn't going to tear my vest; quality leather right there. Anyway, at least I tore your shirt from the _bottom_, eh?"

Sonya was wordless at this response, which Kano took as a cue to continue.

"Anyway, my careful medical examination told me that your ribs were feeling a bit tender as well, but not much I could do to help there. But the dislocated elbow was something I could help you with. And that was pretty much it. Without further adieu, I decided that it would be best to set up camp. Because I doubt you would have been too thrilled to be carried around again. So, I fended off the big bad Centaurian, sorted you out and made you a fire; I think that you owe me one."

Sonya's eyes narrowed and she swung her fist around, aiming to hit Kano straight in the nose. How dare he have such cheek to say something like that? But her injured shoulder made her slow and clumsy, and Kano easily caught her wrist before it had even come close to him. The smirk on his face had grown; with the odds on his favour, she had expected him to be confident. Not to say it didn't get on her nerves.

"Sonya, Sonya, Sonya," Kano began in a taunting sing-song voice. "Just when I think you've stopped, you completely surprise me."

Sonya's eyes narrowed and she pulled back on his hold stubbornly. "Let me go."

Kano rolled his eyes lazily. "You seem to be saying that a lot lately."

Sonya's glare became fiercer and with one swift motion, she brought her boot crunching down on Kano's toes with little mercy. With a muffled yelp, Kano released Sonya and jumped back. Sonya took her chance and turned on her heel, unable to stop a smirk of her own coming to her face. But before she spoke, she adopted a harder expression.

"I am tired of standing around. I'm going that way."

She purposefully strode off in one direction with a determined expression on her face.

"Well, hate to break it to you, but you're going the wrong way." Kano wriggled his toes momentarily before walking over to where Sonya stood frozen at hearing his words. Kano's confidence returned and he walked to stand in front of her.

"Said who?" Sonya challenged fiercely.

Kano shook his head and chuckled, "Well the one who overheard the Tarkata discussing the location of the portal... not to mention that this certain somebody actually saw where said portal is and knows how to use it."

It was impossible for Sonya to miss the smugness in Kano's voice, but it forced her to stop and think. If Kano knew where the portal was and how to use it, that meant that she could get out of this realm. But...

"What's in it for you?"

At this Kano smiled again, his single eye sparkling with amusement. He stepped forward and closer, with Sonya needing a lot of self-control to not step back and raise her head instead.

"Well, I get to accompany you huh? That seems like a good deal in itself."

***ShadowForceSilver***

The silence between Kano and Sonya as they walked could only be described as awkward, or maybe a little forced on Sonya's part. She walked behind Kano in a stiff manner, suspiciously glaring at Kano's back; a complete idiot could tell that she was in no way happy with these arrangements. Kano however wasn't bothered by her icy attitude and made cheerful if not unanswered conversation.

"What's your favourite colour?" He asked randomly and absentmindedly.

He slowly pushed a low hanging branch forward as he walked past it, holding it back as Sonya approached. Sonya looked at him oddly before stubbornly walking around both Kano and the branch before continuing. Kano shrugged his shoulders before he released the branch, making it whip back into its position with a loud swiping noise.

"I thought we agreed not to talk," Sonya replied shortly.

Kano looked over his shoulder to see the impatient blonde leaning against a tree, regarding him with burning eagle eyes. And she seemed quite unwilling to continue on. He wondered why she was bothering to wait for him; did she really need him to hold her hand? Not that he would have minded.

"Well, that was a silent agreement then. It surely wouldn't hurt to answer a harmless little question, would it?"

Kano had sauntered over towards her before pausing momentarily, slightly confused when she still simply watched him pass. He sighed comically and turned to look at her over his shoulder.

"Well, you didn't like my first question, so here's another one; why do you refuse to walk in front? I honestly don't bite."

Sonya scoffed at Kano's tone; a fleet retort passed over her mind but she wasn't willing to give him any satisfaction. She instead crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why would I be stupid enough to walk somewhere with you in my blind spot?"

Kano shook his head at her tauntingly. "I thought we agreed we were working together. You are a very untrustworthy person you know."

Sonya ground her teeth and stepped forward, using all her self-control not to yell at him. "I agreed I would work with you solely for the purpose of getting out of here. That doesn't mean I trust you! And given the circumstances, I probably nev-"

"Shush."

It wasn't the order that halted Sonya halfway through her sentence; it was the unexpectedness of it. Moments ago, Kano was teasing and taunting. Now he sounded serious and alert. Sonya was about to demand what his problem was before she heard it too.

From the direction they came, some beast uttered a loud roar of rage. By some unseen signal, more roars, hisses and snarls arose from the same direction. Whatever beasts they were, they sounded angry; the kind of 'I'm looking for a fight' angry. Sonya half wished that whatever beasts they were, they weren't hungry.

But she knew that the sounds were familiar; not just some simple beast of Outworld. A creature a lot more advanced than a primary predator. But she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Then it hit her. The cries for bloodlust were all too similar to the ones surrounding her on the night of her capture.

"Tarkata," she said tonelessly.

Kano nodded sharply in agreement. "Looks like our pale friend has been discovered. Let's go."

Without waiting for a response, Kano turned on his heel and walked briskly through the forest foliage. Sonya turned back behind her momentarily to gaze at the direction of the beastly shrieks. She sighed and reminded herself once again that her only other choice besides certain death was unfortunately Kano. Although it was sensible, it still took a lot of willpower to go along with it.

"Sonya," Kano called back in a low voice, his cyber eye glinting through the grassy green colours of the forest. "Let's get a move on, shall we?"

Kano was making it even harder by bossing her around or trying to annoy her.

"Quit telling me what to do!" Sonya hissed back furiously. She gave Kano a deathly glare before she too disappeared into the leafy walls of the Outworld woods.

***ShadowForceSilver***

"Damn it!" Sonya cursed herself quietly as the leather pouch fell from her hand and tumbled to the ground, gripping her shoulder painfully. Earlier, she had told Kano that she was more than capable of carrying one of the pouches without giving him much of a choice. But she had underestimated how unstable a stab wound caused by a huge spear could be. The moment she had swung the pouch over her injured shoulder, a fresh wave of pain struck her directly in the shoulder.

Kano stopped walking and turned around to regard Sonya curiously, who stared back with a mix of embarrassment and indifference. As he turned to walk towards her, Sonya dropped her gaze and bent down to pick up the pouch. She bit her tongue to prevent a cry coming out; looks like Kano was right about the cracked ribs. At least the pain let her know she was alive.

"Allow me."

Sonya looked up into the face of Kano, who had bent down to retrieve the pouch first. Sonya grimaced and let out an annoyed sigh; why was she being treated like a damsel in distress because of a stupid shoulder?

"I could have done that myself, you know," she objected quietly.

Kano grinned at her and got up, opening the pouch and sorting through its contents momentarily.

"I know, baby. But you do lack the ability to ask for help, you know," he answered mischievously.

He offered his hand to help her get up, but Sonya stubbornly pushed herself up from the ground. She rubbed her side softly while determinedly and smugly looking back at him. Similar to the branch incident earlier, Kano took no offence and simply shook his head in amusement.

"You just proved my point."

Sonya rolled her eyes at him and went to turn away, but was halted by Kano's firm grip on her other shoulder. As she lifted her other hand to slap away Kano's hand, he almost effortlessly lifted his own arm to deflect Sonya's defence. Sonya let out an annoyed growl and took a deep breath, glaring daggers at Kano's calm face.

"What?" She asked in a dangerous tone.

"You know Sonya, for a Special Forces Agent, you can be bloody stupid." Kano told her in a conversational tone.

"Hey!" Sonya's eyes narrowed; that was a bit uncalled for.

Kano tilted his head thoughtfully; true, he could have gone about that in a more delicate manner.

"Ok then, let me put it this way; would you storm on knowing you have an injury or two?"

Sonya looked at him like he had asked her something utterly stupid. Kano furrowed his brow and tried again.

"At least let me look at it. I'm not carrying you around if you pass out from blood poisoning."

Nice, simple and straight to the point. Sonya sighed and raised her free hand in angry submission.

"Fine then. The sooner we get this over with the better." She didn't want to set up camp when they still had at least half of the day left to get to the portal.

Kano smiled smugly and gestured over to his right where there was a large boulder under one of the darker leafed trees in the forest. Sonya let out another groan of irritation and dragged herself over to the boulder, sitting down heavily and crossing her arms. Kano looked around his surroundings before moving towards a few bushes across from the boulder where Sonya waited impatiently.

"What are you doing?" She asked in a slightly frantic voice.

Without looking at her, Kano leant down onto his knees and selected a few dry twigs that had snapped off from the bushes. They crumbled easily in his hand, making him sigh irritably.

"Calm down sweet-cheeks, I was just seeing if I could get a fire going... but the kindling around here is pretty crappy."

He shrugged his shoulders and got back onto his feet; it would have been a lot better if he could heat some water. But the fact that he had nothing to heat in it... that cooking pot was looking really good right now. Ah well, Kano had always learned to make the best of every situation. He could make do with water and bandages.

He strode back to Sonya's side and unsheathed his dagger, causing Sonya to shy away cautiously. Kano let out a sigh again and paused momentarily.

"You know baby, if we are going to be getting out of here together, you might have to be a bit more... trusting."

Sonya's look of caution turned to one of defiance; hadn't they been through this? She was in no way going to entrust her life to a back-stabbing, lying, distrustful, sneaky criminal.

Seeing Sonya's look, Kano lowered his blade and crossed his own arms.

"Well, let's consider this option; until we get out of here, I won't try and kill you and you won't try to kill me. Hmm?"

Sonya bit her lip and slowly uncrossed her arms, letting out a deep breath while shedding her vest, leaving her only in her tank top. Kano silently exhaled too; so she did have some reason buried under all that stubbornness. He raised the blade again and slowly slipped it under the bandage that covered Sonya's shoulder, causing her to shiver again.

"Don't get too excited," Kano said to her cheekily. Sonya's face went a little red and she let out an annoyed huff.

He sliced the bandage slowly and gently lifted it away, pausing when the bandage over the actual wound refused to give way. Frowning slightly, he reached into the pouch at his waist and retrieved one of the metal flasks. He gently unscrewed the lid and poured a steady theme of water over the bandage, being careful not to use too much.

"I hope we find a river or something soon, or we might get a tad thirsty."

While he waited for the water to work its magic, he washed his own hands before he cut out a small strip from the bundle of cloth he had and soaked it in the water from the now-empty canteen also. Sonya was unable to find any more patience and made a small sound towards Kano who looked up inquisitively. Without saying anything, he nodded and prepared to slowly tear away the bandage.

Once he had removed the bandage, he used the water soaked strip to gently dab at the wound on Sonya's shoulder, noting to himself that it didn't look as angry as it did last night. Granted, it still was looking pretty raw, much more open than he would have liked. But it at least it wasn't bleeding as bad as it was the night before.

Sonya edged her gaze over to watch Kano work over the wound despite the queasy feeling in her stomach; she was always able to handle wounds on her comrades but not so much on herself. She bit her lip and turned away as Kano's gaze briefly rose to her own before dropping back down to his work.

After he felt that the wound had had sufficient cleaning, he tossed away the bloodied cloth and retrieved the roll of the cleaner and whiter material in his pouch. Before cutting it however, he wrapped the material around Sonya's shoulder tightly to try and prevent more bleeding and hopefully help the wound to heal. Once he had wrapped the bandage around her shoulder a few more times, he cut the end off and tied it into the bandage neatly. Leaning back on his heels, Kano let out a satisfied sound to himself.

"We can go now, right?"

Sonya moved to rise, but Kano placed his hand on her arm once again.

"Wait a tick, will you?" Kano gestured to his own rib cage before pointing back to her. "How's your ribs going?"

Sonya bit her lip and curiously inched her shirt up a little bit, just enough to see the dark purple bruise spreading out across her stomach. It hurt to breathe in or out too deeply, and just jolting the area sent a sickening bout of pain through her. But she wasn't willing to admit that much.

"I'll live," Sonya answered simply before shakily getting to her feet.

Kano laughed silently as he stood up beside her, steadying her by the shoulder as she staggered for a moment.

"There's no stopping you is there?"

Sonya turned to look at him and pushed herself into a serious demeanour, placing her hands on her hips and adopting a strong tone.

"Look, I appreciate it. Really. But we can't afford to just stand around and waste time!"

Without waiting for a response, Sonya turned away from him and busied herself with packing the roll of cloth back into the leather pouch. As she rose again, she fixed the pouch to her belt and began stretching her uninjured shoulder slowly. Although it was true that she wanted to get back on track as soon as they possibly could, she knew the real reason why she wanted to change topics.

She had very rarely been close to the man that had betrayed her without one of them threatening the other, and felt the situation was undeniably awkward. But deep down, she knew that she was really afraid of what possibilities could arise. And that thought bewildered her more than anything.

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><p><strong>Heh heh heh. You guys can draw your own conclusions from that (I'm keeping my eye on you Desi XD), but on another note... what did you think of the last scene. It just... felt a bit out of it for me lol... Ehh, could just be me... but let me know lol XD<strong>

**Oh and I have a juicy juicy tidbit for you guys (sorry Desi, but I changed it XD); Sonya and Kano wanted a river, so one of my next moments will have to do with um... nah I'm evil remember XD**

**As always, read, rate and review XD**

**Til next time  
>Shadow :)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10 : Unthinkable

**Hello dear readers... mostly a select few who I absolutely love ^^**

**Here is the special chapter 10 (I can't believe I got to chapter 10 lol XD ) which features a biiiig surprise at the end and I might consider doing some un-fan fan-art lol :D**

**Now without further adieu, read on! Go on hurry! I demand praise!**

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><p><strong>Fate<br>Chapter 10  
><strong>

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><p>The heavy rain cascaded down ruthlessly on the land; waves of water beating against the leaves of the trees in the forest. The impact caused an almost deafening rustling noise and paired with the constant rumbles of thunder, it made it almost impossible to hear anything except the constant roar of the storm. The grassy track was slick and slippery, causing Sonya to lose her footing more than once.<p>

Sonya shivered as they walked forward, glaring miserably at nothing in particular. She had remembered earlier that Kano had mentioned it looked like a storm was brewing. Regrettably, she had shaken it off with a confident "A little water never hurt anybody." She let out another angry sigh; yes a little water. It seemed that she had underestimated the brutality of Outworld's storms.

Deep in her thoughts, she became clumsy and slipped on a particularly wet patch of grass, tumbling forward with a grunt of surprise. Kano paused again and turned back to her, heaving her up by the shoulder without giving much consideration to her protests. Sonya saw his mouth move but squinted her eyes; how was she supposed to hear him over this wind?

"What!" She yelled at him with a confused look on her face.

Kano adopted an annoyed look before leading her under one of the nearby trees, giving them some minimal cover from the rain.

"I said; WE NEED TO FIND SHELTER!" Kano shouted back equally loud.

Sonya shook her head defiantly. "We can handle a light shower, can't we?"

And almost on cue, the intensity of the rain got significantly stronger and the rumble of the storm got louder. The cover provided by the tree was now non-existent, and Sonya found herself once again completely and utterly saturated. Ok, maybe Kano had a point.

She threw her hands up in compliance and rolled her eyes, earning a satisfied smirk from Kano. Sonya shook her head and looked away, her eyes unable to really make out anything past a few trees in front of her. Oh, this was just perfect. Magnificent!

Kano tapped her shoulder quickly, pointing to his left once Sonya has turned to him. Sonya squinted and focused on the direction that Kano was pointing to. Sure enough, once she had focused it all became clear as to what he was pointing to. A small thicket was visible in the shelter of the much taller trees, and was looking very inviting when compared to their current location.

Sonya nodded curtly at Kano once and without wasting time, ran out of the tree's shelter. She ignored the increased force of the rain and only concentrated on the distance left until the thicket. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Kano running at her pace, eager to get into shelter as much as she was. She looked straight again and noticed that the thicket was joyously close.

Once the mouth of the thicket was close enough, Sonya ducked slightly and rushed into the dry safe haven, breathing a sigh of relief. Kano was quick to follow, shaking his head rapidly to get all the water out of his ears. Sonya scowled at this and turned away, wringing all the water out of her soaked hair and wiping her face with her hands.

"Well I'm glad to be out of the rain and all, but now what?" Kano asked, settling down onto the leafy floor of the thicket comfortably.

He stretched his arms up above his head before leaning back against one of the tree trunks that made up the thicket. He placed the pouch he had been holding on the ground by his feet before looking towards Sonya inquisitively.

Sonya shrugged her shoulders in answer before sliding to the floor and leaning against a tree trunk opposite Kano.

"I don't know. I suppose all we can do is wait the storm out," she replied indifferently, unbuckling the pouch at her waist and throwing it on the ground next to the opposite pouch. She looked out at the surrounding forest, unable to prevent a scowl coming to her face; they could have gotten a little further if it weren't for this stupid storm.

Kano smirked at her apparent irritation and let out a loud chuckle; if it wasn't him she was angry at, it always seemed to be something else.

After a while, he cleared his throat, causing Sonya to look over at him curiously. _What is he up to?_ She thought with something between an odd look and a scowl on her face.

"I think we need something to break the mood." He said in an oddly cheerful voice.

Sonya looked at him strangely, "Excuse me?"

"Rain-rain-go away?" He asked in a teasing and suggestive tone.

Sonya narrowed her eyes at him, glaring fiercely. Oh please, god no. Sonya had never been a fan of such stupid nursery rhymes.

"Don't try it," she warned, pointing her index finger at him threateningly.

Kano shrugged, his smirk growing, "Oh, do you know that story about the animals sleeping outside in the rain? And they try and go inside and steal the old guy's bed, and he tries to tell them all to bugger off? So the animals kick the old guy out into the rain?"

Sonya let out a groan and buried her head in her hands. "Shut up," she growled angrily.

Kano held his hands up defensively, "Whoa, you can't get all pissy at me just because I'm singing a few songs to myself."

Sonya looked up at him, her eyes glowering furiously. Why wasn't he the least bit bothered by the fact that they had been delayed? No! All he was concerned about was singing songs and telling stories.

"Yes, I can," she told him.

"No, you can't," he shot back.

"I swear to God, if you don't shut-" Sonya began, but she was cut off by Kano's new topic.

"It's raining! It's pouring! The old man is-Whoa!"

Halfway through Kano's recital of the nursery rhyme, Sonya had shot forward like a cobra and had seized the back of his vest. She then flung him forward, out of the shelter of the thicket and face first into the muddy ground.

Kano raised his head slowly, spitting out mud before gagging and wiping the muck out of his eye. Well, he certainly wasn't expecting that to happen. He shook his head again and turned to face Sonya, who upon seeing him was unable to prevent the ghost of a smirk come to her face.

Sonya shook her head in mirth and turned away from Kano so he couldn't see the slow grin come to her face; he looked ridiculous.

"Ha ha... you got me baby," Kano admitted as leant back on his knees.

"But, this rain will wash it all off."

Sonya let out a dark chuckle of her own and motioned to the sky with her hand.

"Guess again," she taunted, causing Kano to look up in curiosity. What he did see made him groan with dismay.

During their time in the thicket, Kano had failed to notice that the storm was beginning to die down. Now, just when he needed the rain, all that was left was a fine sprinkle. Hardly enough to wash his face off with. Damn Outworld weather, he thought with a grimace.

The triumphant look on Sonya's face had intensified and she let out a loud bark of laughter as she stretched her legs out lazily. That sure shut him up.

Kano shook his head and approached her, reaching down to grab one of the pouches.

"Right then, I'm going to go wash my face off," he told her, which earned him a scoff.

"Where could you possibly go? What could you possibly get?" She asked him whilst throwing her hands in the air.

Kano shrugged, "Pfft, I don't know... I could always find those big banana leaves."

He said with a smirk, relishing her irritation when it reared its ugly head once again.

"We're in a pine forest, idiot!" Sonya shouted after him as he began to walk off.

"Pine leaves then!" Kano turned to point at her. "Now stay put and eat some jerky."

He turned away again and continued to walk throughout the trees. Sonya straightened herself up and glared fiercely at Kano's retreating back, determined to have the last word.

"I hate jerky!"

***ShadowForceSilver***

Kano let out a string of curses as he trudged irritably through the woods; Sonya's temper was always causing him trouble in one way or another. Sure, this one didn't include her trying to imprison him or intercept one of his shipments, but having a face caked in mud wasn't exactly a breeze either. Hmm, he supposed that the fact that Sonya had gotten him was what was bothering him. He never was a good loser.

He hesitated momentarily and silently surveyed his surroundings again, noticing with distaste that the golden beams of sunlight peeking through the trees were slowly fading. That meant that he only had a short amount of time before it got dark. Regrettably, he should get back to Sonya before it got too dark.

He let out a groan of distaste as he turned around; searching for the last tree he had left a mark on. After only a few trees, he ran his finger over the trunk of the next tree he searched and gave a small satisfied smile to feel a large cross carved into the bark. Now he was glad that he had decided to scratch a marker on the trees along his trail.

As he turned to find another marked tree, he stiffened when he heard a strange far-off noise to his right. He blinked and turned towards the source of the noise, thoughtfully furrowing his brow. But as he listened more intently, he noticed that the noise was strangely familiar. _Wait a minute... that sounds like..._

Kano turned and walked towards the sound hopefully, a small smile emerging on his face as he reached the edge of the group of trees. He pulled back a branch in front of him and let out a small laugh at what was in front of him. A giant river flowing in the middle of the forest was not something he was expecting to see. Nor was it quite so inconvenient.

Without wasting time, he reached the bank of the river and knelt down to reach his fingers into the water, letting out a small hiss at the unexpected icy temperature. Oh well, he wasn't exactly expecting anything too warm. He put both of his hands in the river and cupped some water in his palms, swinging it back to clean his face.

After a few more rinse and repeats, Kano rose to his feet and stretched his arms above the air. What he should do now is go back to find Sonya and bring her back to the river. It would be a chance to refill those water canteens and it would serve as a good landmark.

But as he turned around to walk back to the thicket they had sheltered in, he froze at a rustling in the bushes to his left. Oh great, he had heard the Tarkata tell each other not to wander off alone; there were more than enough beasts stalking the woods who could take a loner down with ease. He retrieved the two of his Butterfly knives and held them in front of him defensively, narrowing his eyes at the shape that emerged from the leafy bushes in front of him.

The canine like beast was a dark brown colour with a long stripe of orange fur stretching along the spine of his bony but muscular body. The reptilian tail of the beast swung from side to side slowly, and its amber eyes narrowed in bloodlust. With a hissing growl, Kano saw the huge stained fangs present in its mouth and grimaced. Oh, this was going to take a while.

The beast took a loud sniff in Kano's directions and stalked forward aggressively, throwing Kano off. He took a hesitant step back in confusion; what was it so interested in? As he dropped one hand to his side, his hand brushed against the leather pouch strapped to his belt. Kano stiffened at feeling what was in the pouch; instead of the soft and cushiony feeling of bandages, he was surprised to feel something a lot more...

"Oh shit," Kano swore under his breath as the beast pushed him further back to the edge of the river. So that's why the beast seemed so interest in him.

_RAWRGH!_

The beast pounced forward as it let out a blood curdling roar, colliding with Kano roughly. Kano only had time to swiftly stab the beast once in the stomach before the weight of the beast pushed them both backwards and under the rushing water.

Kano grappled with the struggling animal under water, careful to avoid the flailing claws and snapping fangs as the animal tried to desperately pull away. Kano ripped his butterfly knife from the beast's stomach and kicked the animal away from him as it rose to the surface of the water. Pushing against the current, Kano kicked his way to the surface and took a large gasp of air as he broke the surface of the water.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the wolf like animal had managed to crawl to the river bank and pull itself out of the water. Deciding to follow suit, Kano attempted to swim to the edge of the river, but the flow of the current thought different; Kano found himself being pulled into the centre of the river as he was pulled downstream rapidly.

Kano suddenly felt the panic rising in his throat as he thrashed wildly in the water and let out a loud shout of fear as he felt himself being dragged underneath the water's surface once again. The terror rose in his throat again, and he clawed the surface of the water frantically, spluttering as his head rose above the water once again.

A distorted cry came from his left, causing Kano to turn slowly in confusion. He blinked his eyes rapidly and shook his head to shake the water from his eyes, struggling to keep his head above water. All he could see was a swirling of white and blue and the roar of the river was thunderous against his ears.

As he turned to face downriver once again, a large splash of dark grey broke up the whirls of white in front of him. Kano tiredly tried to comprehend what was rapidly approaching him, but before he could do anything about it, the force of the river slammed him into the large rocks in the river. Kano fell into unconsciousness as the boulder connected sharply with his skull, unable to do anything as he drifted below the ruthless river.

***ShadowForceSilver***

Sonya let out rapid breaths as she sprinted throughout the trees, her eyes darting all around the forest surroundings. Her feet barely touched the ground as she sped towards the sound of the strange roar and shouts.

She had been about to open the pouch left with her to eat some of the jerky left, but it appeared that the pouch Kano had taken was the one with the jerky and canteens inside. When she had examined what she actually did have, she let out a loud and disgruntled groan. There wasn't much she could do with a flint and cotton bandages.

Without much more to do, Sonya settled back down against the tree trunk and stretched her legs out with a somewhat content sigh. She was close to just dozing off when she heard a loud roar that jerked her into waking. But it was the loud shout of shock that pushed her into a standing position before she stepped swiftly out of the thicket's shelter.

She looked around wide-eyed, but forced herself into action mode. Before racing away, she swooped back into the thicket and grabbed the single pouch before racing towards where she heard the scream. She nearly tripped herself on a branch hidden in the grass, but recovered from her stumble before shooting forward as she neared the edge of the trees.

_Huh, I didn't know we were so close to a river_, Sonya thought absently before turning back to a wounded growl across the river. As she watched, a large hulking shape pulled itself out of the water before limping away into the bushes. But as her sharp eyes wondered back to the river, she noticed a brown haired head bobbing under the water.

_Kano!_ She thought in shock. _He must have been attacked by that animal!_

But as she hesitated, Kano had been carried further downstream by the rivers current. Sonya let out a small growl of annoyance before swiftly running along the bank after him. The one time she could let him die was the one time that she had to save him. Life was full of irony it seemed.

But as her eyes strayed from the struggling Kano, she noticed something further downstream that Kano certainly didn't. A large group of rocks in the water were directly in Kano's path.

"LOOK OUT!" She screeched loudly as Kano unknowingly got closer to the rocks.

Kano slowly turned to face her before his eyes swayed back to in front of him. He had barely grasped what was in front of him before he connected with the rocks with a sickening crack. Kano's body jerked violently before his head sank rapidly below the water.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Sonya swore under her breath before taking a deep breath as she ran towards the river bank. She didn't allow herself to hesitate before she dived into the river.

Almost immediately she felt the strong force of the current seize her and pull her along downstream and she let out a splutter of her own before she pushed her head above water, keeping her panic in check and focusing on the current situation. But rather than fight against the current, she kicked along with it in search of Kano through all the swirling rapids.

Taking a deep breath, she dove underwater and kicked forward as her eyes searched rapidly though the water. There! Kano's motionless body made slow movements with the current pushing him along as his head lolled lifelessly. With a determined burst of speed, Sonya reached Kano and grasped him by his vest once again and attempted to pull him up to the surface.

Despite the unexpected weight load, Sonya managed to pull Kano to the surface and dragged him against the current to the bank of the river. Letting out an exhausted gasp, Sonya heaved herself up out of the water before doing the same with Kano. But rather than flopping to the ground in a breathless heap, she acted quickly.

Pushing the unconscious Kano onto his back, she pressed her head against his chest and searched desperately for a heartbeat. There was nothing she could hear, and Kano was no longer breathing. _Oh perfect_. Sonya leaned back onto her heels with a troubled look on her face.

_Oh no_, she thought in dread. If she did that, she could quite literally kiss her dignity good-bye. If she didn't do it, then Kano would probably die and that would leave her without a single clue on where the portal was. Great, she had no choice on the manner.

Sonya took a deep breath and tilted Kano's head back slowly before she placed both her hands on the centre of Kano's chest and compressed down rapidly a number of times. '10...11...12...13...' she counted quietly in her head. When she reached fifteen compressions, she didn't allow herself to hesitate and swiftly pushed forward; leaning forward she reluctantly pressed her lips to Kano and squeamishly let out a breath.

_Oh dear god!_ She silently screamed in her head as she let out another breath before jerking away from Kano's mouth and whipping her eyes back to see if Kano had resumed breathing. She let out a groan when she saw that there was no reaction. Before allowing herself to hesitate too long though, she pressed her hands to Kano's chest again and began another bout of compressions before reaching fifteen compressions once again.

Sighing regretfully, she pressed her lips back to Kano's and prepared to let out another breath before something she certainly wasn't expecting happened. As she breathed a second time, something momentarily touched her lips before going even further. Choking in shock, Sonya pulled herself away and looked up at Kano with widened eyes.

To her horror, Kano was pushing himself up into a sitting position and looking into her own eyes. That horror turned to rage when she saw that there was an extremely satisfied smirk spreading across Kano's face. It didn't take her long to realize what he had done and the thought drove her into fury.

"Son of a-"She screeched fiercely as she leapt forward, rising her fist wanting to punch Kano straight in the teeth.

But Kano caught her fist as it soared towards his face before instinctively seizing her other hand and pulling it down to the ground, his strong grip pinning it down. Sonya struggled against him momentarily before glaring up at his face. More than anything she wanted to just get far away from Kano, but right now that wasn't an option.

"Let me go!" She shouted at him angrily, struggling as much as she could to get away from him.

Kano let out a small chuckle before inching his head closer to a clearly uncomfortable Sonya who inched her head backwards.

"Whatever you say, baby."

He smiled at her unease before slowly releasing her arms, allowing her to jump backwards. Sonya swiftly wiped her hand over her mouth and shuddered, glaring daggers at Kano's back as he turned away.

Kano gestured to the flowing river right in front of him almost as if nothing had happened.

"I found a river, by the way. Here's our chance to fill up those water canteens."

He turned back to Sonya who was slowly picking herself up from the ground, glowering at him resentfully. Ignoring her anger, Kano opened the pouch at his waist and retrieved the two canteens in the pouch. He threw one to Sonya and turned back to the river.

Before he kneeled down to fill the canteen up however, he turned back to Sonya and took an unwelcome step towards her. Sonya stood her ground however and raised her chin to look up at him defiantly. Kano's smirk became more pronounced and he lowered his face to her own slightly. The next words he spoke threw Sonya completely off course.

"Thanks for the kiss of life, by the way."

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><p><strong>So... what did you guys think lol ;) ? Go on, leave a review and let me know lol ^^ Things are only just getting interesting ^^<strong>

**Until next time 3**

**Shadow :)**


	11. Chapter 11 : Not so Sweet?

**List of Top 5 Most Unlikely things to happen in the world:**

**5. The end of the world happens on schedule.**  
><strong>4. The shops will play music other than that of a Christmas-y nature during Christmas time.<strong>  
><strong>3. Women in fighting games have clothes that don't bear flesh that is completely and utterly unbelievable and unsuited to the current situation.<strong>  
><strong>2. Adam Lambert sings a song that does not at all seem mildly sexual or undermine his own sexiness at all ;)<strong>  
><strong>1. I actually update whatever fanfic I have going at the moment.<strong>

**:) Enjoy the chapter**

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><p><strong>Fate<strong>**  
>Chapter 11<br>**

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><p>Shao Kahn's amber eyes glinted as he stared down at the massive pale corpse below him. This was certainly unexpected; never before had a Centaurian failed one of his tasks like this. <em>Nor had they encountered such damage,<em> Shao Kahn thought as he noticed the various wounds and slashes, particularly the bloodied eye. The apparent lack of skills and discipline was insulting to him, and Motaro knew it.

The Centaurian leader was noticeably still as the emperor rose from his throne and slowly started to walk down the few steps. Mileena quickly moved herself out of the way respectfully, before bringing her manic eyes to Motaro and giggling quietly. It was clear to every soul in the room that Motaro would not be let off this lightly.

Shao Kahn halted when he stood in front of Motaro and regarded the nervous Centaurian with narrowed eyes. Even though Motaro was a good head taller than Shao Kahn, he lowered his head and let out a deep breath, preparing for the worst. All others who were present in the throne room too, their breaths held in both eager and dreaded anticipation.

"You have failed me," said the Emperor.

He then turned his back on Motaro dismissively and began to walk back to his throne, much to everyone's shock; normally Shao Kahn showed more vengeful retribution than this. But it appeared to be enough. Motaro couldn't stop a small ounce of surprise and shame coming to his face, and he too turned and shamefully stalked to the back of the crowd. As he passed Goro, the Shokan let out a sneer at the failure before turning back to Shao Kahn with an evil smirk on his face.

"Goro. Approach," ordered Shao Kahn.

Obediently, Goro shoved his way to the front of the crowd and proudly standing before his emperor. As everyone looked on, they could sense his proud arrogance; rather than simply seize the chance of overtaking his mortal rival, he was strangling it to death. He gave an extravagant bow before gesturing to the walkway at the opposite end of the room, where two four-armed figures appeared.

"My emperor, I promise you that _my_ warrior will not be such a disappointment to you."

He snapped the fingers on one hand as a sign for the two warriors to approach. One slightly jutted out into the lead with the other following closely behind. The warrior and Goro's second, Sheeva was first to appear in the vicinity of Shao Kahn, with a proud smile on her face but an inkling of worry in her eyes. She came to a halt beside Goro, with the mystery warrior standing behind them. With a sideway glance from Goro, Sheeva silently moved to the side to allow the secret warrior to step in between them.

Shao Kahn regarded the warrior wordlessly as he processed his thoughts, before speaking in a monotone voice. "Your warrior is a female."

Before they could stop it, a shadow of outrage passed across the faces of the three Shokan. Sheeva stepped out in front and boldly addressed the emperor. Mileena bolted upright from her reclining position on the stairs and let out a villainous hiss as the female Shokan dared to step forward.

"My emperor, my sister Theisa is one of our best warriors, and if anyone should be chosen for such a privilege, it should be her! May I also point out that it was a female who bested one of your greatest warriors! And a lowly human one at that."

Swallowed by her rage, Sheeva momentarily forgot who she was talking to and worry spread out across her features once the anger dissipated. She was surprised when a soft hand gripped one of her upper arms and pulled her backwards as their owner stepped forward. Shao Kahn softly instructed Mileena to stand down and the pink-clad ninja disappointedly turned back and took her place by her father. Once Mileena had returned to her reclining position, he turned back to address the Shokan champion.

"You. What do you hope to do differently than that brute who failed?"

Thesia raised her head and a charming smile came to her features as she placed all four of her hands on her hips after tossing the long braids of her hair behind her shoulders. She oozed the confidence and arrogance that all Shokan possessed; but Thesia was different, she was unnaturally calm and controlled despite being addressed by a force of power that could potentially kill her. She tilted her head sideways a bit so she could gaze down her nose at the mangled Centaurian corpse beside her before speaking in a soft, honey-like voice.

"My dear emperor, what this soldier did wrong is that he didn't consider his enemy. He rushed into the fight and attacked them like dogs, and guess what? The dogs bit back. Hard." She raised one of her eyebrows at the last comment before letting out a small and musical laugh.

"I know my quarry. The male, he is like this one." She gestured to the corpse again. "He has great power and skill, but he lacks the discipline and stragety to reach his full potential. The woman, she has such control and thinking, but she lacks the stomach to mercilessly and ruthlessly kill her opponents, even in battle. Even better, their hatred is stronger than the fear of your subjects."

She took a few steps further until she was at the base of the platform of the Emperor's throne. Her smile increased and her eyes narrowed in a sadistic and sly manner.

"My plan, my dear _dear_ emperor, is to exploit their weaknesses. In that, I shall succeed."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Kano regarded the rigid back of his companion as she draped her arms into the cool river, filling up the second canteen with water. She had made it a point to be deathly silent and ignore him since her rescue and... delightful resuscitation of him. Her lips were pursed and her dark brown eyes were narrowed mutinously. When he had passed her another water canteen, she had at first been reluctant to take it from him before she snatched it from his hands while glaring hotly.

As the silence dragged on, Kano felt irritation pricking at his skin and broke the atmosphere.

"Don't tell me you're still angry about that kiss," he teased with a smirk. As he had guessed, Sonya's back froze again before letting out a deep sigh, as if even acknowledging the fact that he was there was a great personal strain.

"If you could even call it a kiss. You had your tongue halfway down my throat."

"Doesn't that qualify?"

Sonya paused again and let out another irritated breath just as Kano had predicted. She then returned to her chore of filling the water canteen, even though it was already overflowing. The corner of Kano's lips jerked upwards into some sort of a lazy smile and he walked to her side before dropping down to his knees. He sat with his back to the river and stared at her openly; relishing the open hostility she regarded him with return.

"That water canteen is full, you know." His tone was casual, conversational even. It was met with a scoff and a voice that sounded like it was being used to scold a four year old.

"What? You think I'm blind?" Sonya spat back. She sneered at him before turning her back and walking away. It was clear she was just itching for a reason to pick a fight, so he decided to play with fire a little more before he burned his fingers.

Kano shrugged before musing to himself, "Wow. All the things I've done and all it takes is a small peck to completely tick you off, huh?"

Sonya suddenly stiffened before turning back to face Kano, the new-found rage all over her face. Kano looked back fearlessly before rising to his feet, the arrogant smirk she oh so hated coming onto his face. Sonya's eyes narrowed as she took a slow step forward, her finger rising to point at him accusingly. When she stood in front of him, her eyes glinting with ferocity, she spoke in a low whispering tone.

"Say that again," she dared.

"What? Do you want me to say I'm sorry?" Kano responded in an almost bored voice as he stared her down with a lazy look on his face.

WHAM! Ouch. He wasn't prepared for that.

Kano found himself back on the ground with a burning pain in his jaw with Sonya reacting quickly once he had been grounded. Stepping beside him, Sonya raised her foot and slammed it down on Kano's chest, much like the Centaurian had done to her before. She ignored the ache in her shoulder and focused on Kano's struggles, crushing down on his chest even harder until he had stopped struggling. The tables had defiantly turned, and Kano knew it.

He grinned up at her and winked, looking too cheerful for someone who had just been socked straight in the face. "Nice shot, baby."

"Shut up," Sonya snarled, pressing down harder on a Kano's chest, emitting a groan from the latter. "You think saying sorry is just going to fix everything? Is going to bring them all back?"

Kano's lips twitched in thought; _them_ must be her old team of mates... whom he may have killed at one point or another. She was extremely predictable in this manner. The problem with some people was that they just got too attached and way too sentimental.

"You told me lies and deceived me, and look where it got us all! Stabbing them in the back in and the dark was cowardly even for you!"

Kano pursed his lips in thought. "I think it was a smart strategy if you ask me. You lot attacked me first and I simply chose to defend myself. Plus, I'm always up for a sport."

Sonya's eye twitched at his comment, the resentment apparent all over her face. She swiftly removed her foot from Kano's chest, balancing herself on the ground. Kano chuckled arrogantly and made to push himself up from the ground, but he wasn't prepared for the stabbing kick to land right in his side. Sonya's boot connected strongly with his ribs, the pain forcing him to let out another harsh cry and the force pushing him back down onto his stomach.

"Sport? Fucking sport?!" Sonya screeched hysterically, a flurry of kicks raining upon Kano as her rage was unleashed. Once Sonya had started, there was no stopping her.

"How fucking dare you!? My friends?! MY partner?! All for FUCKING SPORT?!" She ended each of her sentences with one powerful kick at his stomach, finding extreme satisfaction at his numerous cries of pain, no matter how sadistic it was.

"It's because of you that _he's_ dead! The man I lo-" Sonya cut herself off in sheer horror, stepping away from Kano in shock. She had been so close to... No, she couldn't allow that to surface. How goddamn stupid of her.

Kano looked up, also surprised at the sudden stop in violence. He noticed the look of shock on her face as she stepped back, and decided to quickly assume some sort of control of the situation.

"The man you... what exactly?" He asked in a sly tone, his single eye glinting up at her.

Sonya didn't buy into the goad and simply shook her head at him, scowling down like he was something disgusting left on her rug.

"You bastard," Sonya spat angrily.

"Oh, I try."

Kano feebly picked himself up off the ground and shakily stood up, clutching his side and regarding Sonya with a stare somewhere between amused and extremely homicidal. The woman standing before him had the latter expression written all over her; her face, her stance, the way her hands had balled up into fists. He raised his head and put one hand on his hip, attempting a small wry smile. She was going to have to do more to keep him knocked down.

Sonya turned away and put her head in her hand momentarily, the surge of anger exhausting her thoroughly. She rubbed her forehead tenderly and let out a tired sigh; this was beginning to get way out of hand. Much more than she liked. Without turning her head over her shoulder, she spoke in a monotone voice as she addressed him.

"Let's get a move on before night falls. I want to get out of here."

***ShadowForceSilver***

Sonya took a deep breath as she huddled into herself further, her tired eyes idly regarding the sparks of the newly made campfire. That afternoon's scuffle had opened up wounds that she would have preferred to remain closed; a past that would have been better left buried. She bit her lip futilely and forced herself to hold the tears back; she wasn't going to cave in after all these years over him, especially not now. She knew that one moment of weakness was all it would take for the son of a bitch to utterly tear her to pieces. No, she had to keep herself strong to get out of here. If anything, she was a survivor- nothing would keep her down for long. Especially not that despicable, rat-sucking bastard.

"You know, you look kinda cute when you're all pouty like that."

And he was back.

Sonya let out an infuriated sigh when Kano boldly approached her and sat down beside her. Casually, he lifted his hand to reveal one of his bloodied daggers in the firelight. He began to lazily flick the knife towards the fire, causing small beads of blood to fling away in all directions. Sonya turned to regard him, obviously irritated as a few droplets of blood landed on her arm, lifting her other hand to stiffly wipe the blood away.

"Whoops." Kano gave her an apologetic shrug, the smirk on his face ruling out the unsaid 'sorry'.

"Don't sweat it," Sonya replied shortly.

There were a few more awkward moments of silence, the crackling of the fire filling in for the cliché grass hoppers before Kano decided to break the silence once again.

"So, I tracked down that friend of mine, finished him off... got my knife back." He raised the bloodied knife once again for emphasis.

"Good to know."

A few more seconds crawled by, and Kano decided to full on hit the nail on the head directly.

"So, care to share? You seemed pretty insistent on keeping a certain something buried." he stated. He turned his head slightly, looking at her sideways curiously.

"Obviously."

Kano's nose twitched, his brow furrowed in thought. Well that was expected. He gazed at Sonya thoughtfully, sizing her up almost. The unbroken stare was enough to rouse a response from Sonya who turned momentarily to return the stare; her lips slightly pursed and her eyebrows raised in an irritated manner. She shivered uncomfortably, and even though common sense was otherwise, she didn't break the eye contact.

"What do you want, Kano? I'm tired." Her voice was weary, but it still retained that spark. Like she was looking for the challenge once again.

Kano's lips broke into a smirk as he shrugged. "Just trying to figure you out, that's all."

Sonya's eyes narrowed as she raised her head. "Excuse me? You're not the one supposed to try to figure my motives out. It's the other way around, actually."

Kano cocked one of his eyebrows up in answer, almost like he was taking up a challenge himself. "What have you figured out so far, sweety?"

Sonya lifted her chin, a mean-looking glint suddenly present in her eye. "Street name: Kano. Wanted for murder, attempted murder, aggravated violence, weapons smuggling, drugs smuggling, and etcetera. Subject appears to have no sense of true morals and seems to be acting on pure impulse... and bloodlust. High level criminal, brought in alive for questioning by the Special Forces of United States of America. Reward offered."

Kano was still and thoughtful as Sonya rattled off what was probably the description of his wanted poster, something that she had no doubt memorised. The revelation of the US putting a bounty on his head was not at all surprising, but the profiling part was on completely different grounds. He turned to her sombrely, the smirk becoming small and distant.

"Right on all accounts, except for one. My motive." Kano turned his head back to stare into the fire, the expression on his face making Sonya regard him with confusion.

"When you're a little runt running wild on the street with bills to pay and people to care for, the offer that was made to me looked like a pretty good one. Dad had ticked off, Mum was sick, Sis was probably working the streets which left little old me to be the favour runner of the local drug cartel. An old friend and I got in deep with the gang leaders, bad things happened to us. Things I would rather not discuss also. He got killed, I... well, we both got hurt."

Sonya's head dipped a little bit; she was feeling something she never thought she would feel for an enemy. Sympathy.

"Well, I needed to do something, because that money was helping taking care of my mum and sis. So I did the natural thing; formed my own gang of all the splinters of that cartel and we obliterated them. And what can I say, that power felt good. I got my vengeance, I was making some serious cash and so on, so forth. But there was collateral damage at the cause of my actions; bye bye Mum and so long Sis."

Sonya lowered her chin slightly. "They killed your family?"

"You could say that; the bullets were actually meant for me, but accidents happen."

"Accidents?" Sonya echoed in an aghast voice. "They were your _family_."

_Just when I think he was beginning to show some shred of humanity, he says something like that._

Kano lifted his head and turned his chin slightly to regard her again. There was a brief flash of shock on his face before he masked it with a crooked half smile, shrugging slightly.

"They were indeed, and I still think of them as being that. But nothing I do will bring them back, and I doubt that they would want me to be too wrapped up in their deaths... which happened many years ago. In short, I personally think revenge is hardly worth the effort and the satisfaction it brings is extremely short-lived."

Kano ended his little speech with giving Sonya a soft part on the shoulder despite the predictable flinching.

"Take it from a professional; all that bullet got me was a little more blood on my hands and a whole lot more questions."

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	12. An Apology

**Dear Readers,**

**I am a terrible terrible person. I have literally not uploaded for the past year, and I am so very deeply sorry :( This past year has been my final year of school and I have been trying to work hard to get good grades for uni/college next year, so whenever I have ahd a spare moment, I haven't been able to muster up the flow for fic writing :p**

**I have written drabbles of these two fics but they just haven't been right. :( It's frustrating I know, really lol.**

**But, come the end of November, my exams are all over. I'm pretty sure Uni doesn't start until February... so that means a whloe lot of free wind-down time. Then is when I plan on doing some writing. So keep holding on, I haven't abadonned you yet :)**

**It's actually been pretty touching to see how many people have been missing these updates. Thank you. The next update on these two fics will be a brand new chappy. That I promise.**

**xx Shadow **


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